I 



r 



I 



Life of 

James Q. Blaine 

''The Plumed Knighf 

EDITOR, REPRESENTATIVE, SPEAKER, SENATOR, CABINET 
MINISTER, DIPLOMAT AND TRUE PATRIOT 



A Graphic Record of His Whole 
IHustrious Career, from the 
Cradle to the Grave 



PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED 



BY WILLIS FLETCHER JOHNSON, A.M. 

Author of **Life of Sherman," ** Stanley and His Adventures,'^ 
''History of the Johnstown Flood,'' ''Sitting Bull and the 
Indian War," " My Country, 'Tis of Thee," Etc., Etc. 

Copyright, A. R. Kellar, 1892 



SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY 

. J 

cmATLANTIC PUBLISMiNQ CO, ^ ^ 
180.1 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1893, 
By D. B. SHEPP» 
the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



All rights reserved. 



PRESS OF 

Alfred M. Slocum Co. 

r>H!LAr>A. 



PREFACE. 



Bancroft, writing of the American Revolution, de- 
clares that its history is in the letters of the great men 
who took part in it. More widely, it is also to be said 
that the history of any era in any State is in the rec- 
ords, of words and of works, of the great men who fig- 
ured therein. The annals of olden times are largely 
catalogues of battles. But the story of ancient battle 
ignores the rank and file, and tells us of the individual 
combats of the leaders. Of parliamentary battles in 
later ages the same is true ; and the record of progress, 
in science and literature and morals and invention, and 
in all the arts of civilization, has each paragraph adorned 
and vitalized with the rubricated name of some great 
man or woman. 

Thus also is it seen that the full history of any im- 
portant individual involves the history of the time 
and State in which he lived. One could scarcely desire 
a better history of the Revolution than must be given 
in an adequate biography of Washington. A life of 
Luther is a comprehensive chronicle of the German Re-- 
formation. The story of Lincoln is the story of negro 
emancipation in America. 



PREFACE. 



In the present instance it is not intended to attempt 
a work of such a character. A complete history of any 
man cannot be written in his own age, A full, impartial 
and philosophic estimate of his worth, and of the extent 
and importance and effectiveness of his work in the 
w^orld, can only be made when he has passed into a more 
extended prospective than contemporary vision affords. 

It is possible, however, in considerable measure, to 
separate the individual from his environment, and to tell 
the simple story of his personal doings. Especially 
well may this be done in the case of such a forceful and 
distinct personality at that of James G. Blaine. It will 
be to paint a panorama, in which the central figure 
stands forth conspicuously, outlined in bold relief, while 
his com.rades and all the landscape about them, are but 
faintly sketched. 

James G. Blaine was for many years the most eminent 
man in American political life. In the National House 
( ^f Representatives he made an enviable record as a 
painstaking committeeman, an eloquent orator, an un= 
surpassed debater, and a dignified, commanding and 
impartial Speaker. In the Senate he easily ranked in 
the forem.ost class. As Secretary of State he con- 
ducted the foreign affairs of the nation v/ith a broad 
and courageous and skillful statesmanship that has won 
the admiration of the world. As a party leader and 
Presidential candidate he enjoyed such loving, loyal and 
enthusiastic following as is scarcely to be paralleled in 
history. 



PREFACE. 



To trace the progress of such a career is a most grate- 
ful task to the historian, as it must be fruitful of 
pleasure and of profit to the reader. It is to furnish a 
text-bookof American patriotism, a picture-book of many 
of the most thrilling scenes of recent years, a story- 
book of narratives equally truthful and fascinating, 
equally instructive and entertaining. Such is the task 
that in these pages is essayed. However far it may fall 
short, in execution, of the ideal, it is at least undertaken 
with sincere devotion to the theme and with an earnest 
purpose to reveal the subject with entire truthfulness 
— with as much completeness as may be possible within 
the compass of the present volume. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER 1. 

ANCESTRAL MEMORIES. 

The Scotch-Irish Settlers in Pennsylvania — The Blaines — A Friend of 
Washington — Important Services in the Revolution — Country Gentle- 
men of the Old School — Founding of the Economite Community — 
Ephraim L. Blaine and Maria Gillespie— Their Home on Indian Hill 
Farm, West Brownsville 

CHAPTER II. 

CHILDHOOD AND STUDENT LIFE. 

The Influences of Heredity — A Characteristic Incident of Childhood — -First 
Studies at Home— At School at Lancaster, Ohio — Entering Washing- 
ton College— The Roll of His Classmates— His Leadership in College 
Life— His Rank as a Student — Little Participation in Athletic Games 
—Incidents of Student Life— An Original Demonstration—The Pro- 
gramme of Commencement Day — The P/ophetic Subject of His Com- 
mencement Oration. 



CHAPTER in. 

THE TEACHER. 

Plans for a Life of Teaching— His First Engagement in Kentucky — An 
Enture Change of Environment— Difficulties of His Po.sidon — Leader 
in a Free Fight — -His Courtship and Marriage — His Contact with 
Slavery and His Views Thereof — Development of a Strong Anti- 
Slavery Sentiment— His Return to the North — Studying Law and 
Teaching the Blind — His Fir.st Book — Removal to the Pine Tree 
State 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE EDITOR. 

Political Condition of the Country — The Slavery Quesdon Dominant — Mr. 
Blaine's Removal to Augusta and Editorship There — ^Samples of His 



CONTENTS. 

Vigorous Writing^ — His Share in the Organization of the Republican 
Party — A Delegate to Its First National Convention — His First Stump 
Speech — x\dvocacy of the Principles of the New Party — Removal to 
Portland— Three Years of Service in the Maine Legislature 63 

CHAPTER V. 

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. 

Some of His Colleagues in His First Term — Relations with President 
Lincoln — Speeches on the Draft, the Enrolment, and Other Topics — 
Defence of the State of Maine — Opposition to the Greenback Craze— ' 
Three Terms in the Speakership — A Lively Controversy with General 
Biitler — The Salary Grab — Leader of the Minority — A Strong Declara- 
tion of Political Principles — Close of His Career as a Representative. . loi 

CHAPTER VI. 

FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS. 

The Debate on the Proposal to Restore Jefferson Davis to Full Citizenship 
— Action of the Forty -third and Forty- fourth Congresses — K Powerful 
Speech by Benjamin H. Hill, of Georgia — Mr. Blaine's Reply — The 
Incident that Gave Him the Title of " the Plumed Knight." .... 151 

CHAPTER Vn. 

DEALING WITH SLANDER. 

A Carnival of Scandal Hunting—Newspaper Insinuations — Charges in 
Congress— Mr. Blaine's Effective Reply— Fresh Accusations — The 
Mulligan Letters — Political Objects of the Investigations — Mr. Blaine's 
Recovery of the Letters — His Production of Them in the House of 
Representatives — The Suppressed Despatch from Caldwell — A 
Dramatic Scene in the House — Mr. Blaine's Triumphant Acquittal at 
the Bar of Public Opinion 174 

CHAPTER Vin. 

THE SENATOR. 

A Prominent Position Quickly Taken in the Upper Chamber — Opposition 
to the Electoral Commission and to the Southern Surrender Policy of 
President Hayes — Discussion of the Southern Elections Question — 
Opposition to the Bland Silver Bill — Restriction of Chinese Immigra- 
tion — Defeating a Democratic Conspiracy in Maine — The Shipping 
Interests of the Nation 209 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 
NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 



The Congressional Deadlock and Political Debate of May, 1879 — The 
Question of State Rights versus National Sovereignty at Issue — Ad- 
dresses by Great Party Leaders — Senator Eaton's Presentation of the 
Democratic Side — Mr. Blaine's Reply — Full Text of His Masterly 
Oration 222 

CHAPTER X. 

1876 AND 1880. 

Interest in the Political Contest of the Centennial Year — The Rival Re- 
publican Candidates — Mr. Blaine's Prostration — Presentation of His 
Name at the Cincinnati Convention — Colonel Ingersoll's Speech — 
" The Plumed Knight" — Nomination of Governor Hayes — The Con- 
vention of 1880 — ^The Third Term Question— Steadfastness of the 
Grant and Blaine Forces — A Long Deadlock — The Final Compromise 
on Garfield 258 

CHAPTER XL 

SECRETARY OF STATE. 

Appointment to the Chief Portfolio in the Garfield Cabinet — Mr. Blaine's 
Letter of Acceptance — Salient Features of His Foreign Policy — Con- 
troversy with England over the Neutrality of the Panama Canal — 
- Death of Garfield and Accession of President Arthur — The Invitation 
to the American Republics to Hold a Peace Congress— Object of 
these Negotiations — Mr. Blaine's Retirement from Office — Abandon- 
ment of His Plans by His Successor — Mr. Blaine's Vindication of Plis. 
Policy. 283 



CHAPTER Xn. 

IN MEMORIAM. . 

Hie Eulogy on Garfield — An Impressive Scene in the Hall of the House 
of Representatives at Washington — A Distinguished Audience in 
Attendance — Eminent Fitness of the Speaker to the Theme — Memo- 
ries of Sixteen Years Before — An Eloquent Review of the Career of 
America's Second Martyr President — The Full Text of the Oration. . 316 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XIIL 

THE CONVENTION OF 1884, 

Mr, Blaine a Candidate for the Thiird Time — Meeting of the Convention — 
The First Skirmish—The Declaration of Principles — The Various 
Candidates Placed in Nomination— Speech of Judge West in Behalf 
of Mr. Blaine — Scenes of Unparalleled Enthusiasm — Steadfast Sup- 
port for President Arthur — Mr. Blaine Nominated on the Fourth 
Ballot — Address of the Committee Informing Him of the Result — 
Mr. Blaine's Reply 365 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 

The Opening of Mr. Blaine's Campaign — A Statesmanlike Discussion of 
the Issues of the Day — The Rev,enue Laws and the Protective Tariff-— 
Agricultural Interests of the Nation— -Foreign and Domestic Commerce 
—Labor and Caiital — Relations with Foreign Nations — The South 
American RepubHcs— The Civil Service — -The Mormon Question— 
The Freedom and Purity of the Ballot 392 



CHAPTER XV; 

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 

A Bitter and Exciting Political Contest— The Standard -Bearers of the Two 
Parties — Personal Attacks upon Mr. Blaine— -The Mugwump Defection 
—The State Election in Maine—Mr, Blaine's Tour through the Coun- 
try—His Visit to New York—The Delmonico Dinner— The Visit of 
the Clergymen — " Rum^ Romanism and Rebellion "—Some Reckless 
Lying — Effect of the Mischief—Result of the Election— Mr., Blaine's 
Comments— The Cleveland Administration. . 421 



CHAPTER XVL 
A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 

Free Trade Brought Forward as the Leading Iss^^e of the Democratic 
Party — President Cleveland's Message on the oubject in December, 
1887 — Text of the Document that Sounded the Key-note of tfie 
Coming Campaign — A Prompt Reply by Mr. Blaine by Cable from 
Paris — Report of the Memorable Interview between Mr. Blaine and 
Mr. George W. Smalley — Its Effect upon Public Opinion and Poli- 
tics in the United States 467 



CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER XVII. 

AMERICAN DIPLOMACY. 

The Convention of 1888— Mr. Blaine's V\'ork in the Campaign— The 
Harrison Administration — Mr. Blaine's Second Term as Secretary of 
State — The Samoan Affair — Extradition — The Pan American Con- 
ference — Reciprocity and its Results — American Pork in European 
Markets — The Fisheries — Bering Sea—Controversies with Chili and 
with Italy — A Notable Chapter in American Diplomacy 514 

CHAPTER XVIIL 
THE MAN. 

Foreign Travels and Literary Vork — The London Times' Estimate of 
*' Twenty Years of Congress " — Mr. Blaine's Home at Augusta — His 
Washington House — His Bar Harbor Cottage — The Children of the 
Household — A Brief Glance at S..me of Mr. Blaine's Personal Char- 
icteristics , . . . . 53c 

CHAPTER XIX. 

THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 

Mr. Blaine Declines Further Political Preferment and Retires from the 
( abinet — I he Minneapolis i onvcntion and the Campaign of 1892— 
Mr. i>laine's Failing Health— His Wonderful Struggle Against the 
Foe— His Death 536 

CHAPTER XX. 
FINAL TRIBUTES. 

An Outburst of National Grief — Words of Tribute from Chauncey Depew, 
Senator Hoar, Ex-Secretaries Fish and Evarts, Henry Watterson and 
others — Dr. MacArthui's Version of the Burchard Incident — The 
Funeral Services at the House— At the Church of the Covenant — At 
the Grave in Oak Hill Cemetery— The End 552 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



James G. Blaine, Frontispiece 

Birthplace of James G. Blaine, 19 

Burial Place of Blaine's Parents, . 38 

Washington and Jefferson College, • ♦ 55 

Philadelphia Blind Asylum, 74 

Philadelphia Almshouse, 91 

Blaine's Mansion, Augusta, no 

House of Representatives, 127 

Roscoe Conkling, 146 

Wm. Windom, 163 

U. S. Senate, . = . . 182 

Blaine's Mansion, Washington, 199 

Senator Geo. F. Edmunds. 218 

Robert T. Lincoln, . 2^5 

Blaine Retiring from the Senate, 254 

James A. Garfield, 271 

Chester A. Arthur, * 290 

State, Army and Navy Building, 307 

Convention Building, Chicago, ......... 326 

John A. Logan, 343 

Grover Cleveland, ^^62 

Thos. A. Hendricks, 379 



Capitol, 398 

Rev. Samuel D. Burchard, 415 

Wm. McKinley, 434 

Bar Harbor Cottage, 45 i 

Harrison and Blaine Families at Bar Harbor, . . . 470 

Walter Damrosch, 487 

Benjamin Harrison, ^ ..... . 506 

Emmons Blaine, 523 

Walker Blaine, 542 

James G. Blaine^s Cofifin, 563 

Burial Ground Blaine Family, Augusta, Me., . . -574 



1 



CHAPTER I. 

ANCESTRAL MEMORIES. 

rhe Scotch-Irish Settlers in Pennsylvania— The Blaines— A Friend ci 
Washington— Important Services in the Revolution — Country Gentle^ 
men of the Old School— Founding of the Economite Community— 
Ephraim L, Blaine and Maria Gillespie — Their Home on Indian Hill 
Farm, West Brownsville, 

Among the many and diverse elements which, 
during three centuries, have mingled together to 
form the American Nadon, there is none exhibit- 
ing a more persistent and commanding individual- 
ity than the Scotch Irish. The people of that 
stock, who migrated hither in large numbers 
before the Revolution, seemed to possess the 
very qualities that would insure success and 
leadership. Their transplantation — or that of 
their ancestors — from Scotland to the North of 
Ireland had imbued them with the colonizing 
spirit. They had retained the philosophy, the 
thrift and the energy characteristic of Caledonia, 
and had added thereto much of the wit, the 
versatility and the personal magnetism of the 
best Hibernian types. Less sombre and ascetic 
than the Puritans, yet far more practical and 
serious than the Cavaliers, they formed a golden 
mean between the two. Early in American 

17 



i8 



JAMES G, BLAIXE. 



history they began to exercise influences greatly 
disproportionate to their numbers, and down to 
the present day have continued to be a singularly 
vital and stressful force, in trades, and businesses, 
and the learned professions, and also in public life. 

By an interesting coincidence, they not only 
occupied a place spiritually and intellectually be- 
tween New Encrland and Mr^inia, but the actual 
geographic?d settlement of many of them was in 
a similar position. Following after Penn, they 
made their homes in the fertile vallevs and amonor 
the picturesque m.ountain ranges of the region 
that bore his name ; and by their shrewdness and 
enterprise largely contributed to the grovrth of 
that colony into one of the most important States 
of the Union. Conspicuous among these makers 
of Pennsylvania was a family that had enjoyed 
much prosperity and an enviable social rank in 
the old country, and that now placed in American 
history a name already famous in the annals of 
Scotland — the name of Blaine. 

Concerning the first generations of that family 
in America, little needs here to be said ; or can be 
said, indeed, because of paucity of information. 
They were well-to-do people, industrious and 
progressive; and they possessed themselves of 
several fine tracts of land, some in the western 
part of the State, in the neighborhood of Pittsburg 
and along the Monongahela river, which have 
since proved rich in iron and coal, and others in 



ANCESTRAL MEMORIES. 



21 



that beautiful Cumberland Valley, which is one of 
the choicest agricultural districts of the vState. It 
was in the latter region that Ephraim Blaine, the 
first member of the family of especial concern in 
the present writing, chiefly made his home. 

Eohraim Blaine was a close friend of Washino-- 
ton ; a simple, but much-me aning fact. The 
Father of His Country was not given to making 
a public assembly-room of his heart. He guarded 
the approaches toit with jealous care. No comer 
who could not give the pass-words of soberness 
and truth, of loyalty and mianhood, might hope - 
for entrance. It may, therefore, well be believed 
that those who were admitted to his confidence 
and friendship were m^en of moral and mental 
worth ; and that such was Ephraim Blaine. He 
was not only a friend of Washington ; he was his 
comrade in arms. He was one of the first to 
join in the armed contest for independence ; he 
rose to the rank of Colonel in the regular army, 
and was Commissary-General during the last five 
years of the war. Nor were his militant services 
in camp and field, great as they were, the most 
important tliat he rendered. He was a man of 
wealth — for those times — and of wide influence, 
and he placed his own fortune, and persuaded 
many of his friends to place theirs, at the disposal 
of the Governm.ent at a time when dollars were 
of more value than bullets. On more than one 
occasion, when the Continental Treasury was 

2 



22 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



empty, he advanced large sums of money for the 
purchase of supplies for the troops, thus averting 
discontent and disaster. Especially during that 
dreadful winter -at Valley Forge were his heroism 
and self-sacrifice of inestimable value to the cause 
of independence. Washington himself awarded him 
the credit of saving the army from utter starvation. 
After the war, the friendship of Washington and 
Blaine continued, and the first President, together 
with Hamilton Knox and others, was glad to en- 
joy the hospitalities of the Blaine mansion, at 
Middlesex, near Carlisle. 

Ephraim Blaine died at his home in the Cum- 
berland Valley in 1804, leaving his eldest son, 
James, to be the head of the family. The latter 
was intended by his father for public life. He re- 
ceived a fine education and v/as then sent abroad 
to study, to travel, and to gain that cosmopolitan 
culture that could only be acquired by residence 
in the European capitals. Having at his disposal 
a fortune ample for the gratification of his tastes, 
the young man devoted year after year to this 
delightful occupation. He had become familiar 
with every important city of Europe, and a weL • 
come member of its best society, and at the close 
of the Revolutionary War came home as the 
bearer of some special despatches of great im- 
portance to the Government. He returned to 
Carlisle endowed with all the intellectual and 
social wealth that he had gone to seek, but 



ANCESTRAL MEMORIES, 



without that ambition for political preferment for 
which his father had hoped. Instead, therefore, 
of entering the public service, he devoted himself 
to private interests. His life was that of the 
country gentleman of the old school ; enjoying 
to the full the ease and pleasures his wealth could 
command, exercising a most generous hospitality 
and offering an ever ready hand and purse to 
every good cause, of charity or of social weal. 
He did not, however, lead a life of idleness. 
Ample as was his fortune, he paid keen attention 
to its enlargement, and showed himself a shrewd 
and successful business man. He had inherited 
from his father extensive lands in the western 
part of the State. Rightly believing that Pitts- 
burg would become a great centre of trade and 
manufactures, he increased his holdings there, and 
became the owner of a tract that now is worth 
many millions of dollars. 

The eldest son of James Blaine was Ephraim 
Lyon Blaine, who was born at Carlisle. His 
education and early training were much like those 
of his father. After receiving the best instruc- 
tion available at home, he was sent to Europe, 
and there spent several years in study and plea- 
sure-seeking. Thence he went to South America, 
and to the West Indies, visiting all important 
places and familiarizing himself with the life and 
the interests of each country. His father's death 
recalled him to Pennsylvania, where he found 



24 



JAMES G, BLAINET 



himself the possessor of a great estate. The 
family home was at Carlisle. But the bulk of his 
lands lay further west, and as these were con- 
tinually increasing in value, and needed close per- 
sonal attention, he soon found it desirable to re- 
move thither. Accordingly, in i8i8,'he settled in 
Beaver County, on the Ohio river. Here, and 
on the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, he 
owned thousands of acres of land, mostly covered 
with timber, and at that time giving no indication 
of the enormous wealth they now represent. 

Five years later Mr. Blaine sold to the com- 
munity known as the Economites for only ^25,000 
the tract of land in Beaver County on which their 
large and wealthy village of Economy now stands. 
An interesting account of this transaction has 
been given by Mr. Jonathan Lenz, one of the 
principal officers of the Economites, which may 
properly here be quoted. The community, under 
the leadership of Frederick Rapp, hard first estab- 
lished the town of Harmony, in Butler County, 
Pennsylvania. Thence they migrated westward, 
and built the town of Harmony, Indiana, in the 
Wabash Valley, in 18 14, in what was then an un- 
broken wilderness. The location chosen was an 
unfortunate one, from the fact that it was swampy 
and unhealthy, and the strength of the colony was 
greatly reduced by death. Mr. Rapp finally 
called the people together and suggested that 
they return to Pennsylvania, but .on putting it to 



ANCESTRAL MEMORIES. 



25 



a vote it was decided to give the new Harmony a 
further trial, it being suggested that by clearing 
away more of the forest they might be relieved 
from the malaria which was so rapidly thinning 
their ranks. This was done, but without success, 
and at the end often years, in 1824, it was de- 
cided to turn their faces once more toward the 
Keystone State, but to select a better locality than 
that first hit upon in Butler County. Mr. Rapp, 
with a chosen band of men from the colony, started 
out on the 6th of May, 1824, and reaching the 
Ohio river embarked on the steamboat Plowboy 
for Pennsylvania. The steamboats of those days 
did not possess the speed of our present river 
palaces, and it was not until some time in the 
month of June that they landed at French Point. 

Not far away was the home of Ephraim Lyon 
Blaine. The house stood vv^ell back from the 
river, in a small clearing, many of the trees cut 
down to make room for it still lying on the 
ground unburned. About a hundred yards away 
from it on the river side the ground w^as depressed 
and swampy, the water being at all times knee 
deep, while further on was the high plateau on 
the margin of the river, well drained and in a 
very rich soil. A bargain was struck by Mr. 
Blaine for the land, and he gave pvossession of 
the house in about two months after the purchase. 

''The Blaines/* continues Mr. Lenz, who was 
a member of the pioneer party of Economites, 



26 



JAMES G, BLAINE. 



''were liberal livers, fond of good horses and 
hunting, and men of the best class of those days. 
The house was comfortably and even elegantly 
furnished, as you can judge by looking at some 
of the articles we purchased from them, and 
which we have had in constant use ever since. 
Everybody in the Society thought highly of the 
Blaines, and were sorry when they left the neigh- 
borhood. We all went to work with a will, and 
soon had a number of log and frame houses 
erected and ready for occupancy, the work of 
clearing the ground having first been done. Our 
first church was a laro-e structure, built of shell- 
bark hickory logs fifty feet long, which I myself 
squared, having while in Indiana learned to use 
the broad-ax as part of my trade as a wagon- 
maker. This edifice stood for fifty-five years, and 
was only torn dov/n then because it had decayed 
and become shabby looking. When we had 
sufficient house-room in the settlement Mr. Rapp 
moved into the great house, and in 1825 the main - 
body of the colony joined us. 

When Mr. Rapp vacated the old Blaine house, 
it was determined to take it down and remove it 
to the villao^e, there to be re-erected. At its 
former site it stood ao-ainst an embankment, and 
the lower story was in the nature of a basement. 
When set up on level ground it was a large two- 
story structure, as you now see. It contains all 
the original material, even to the plastering, and 



ANCESTRAL MEMORIES. 2 J 

has been used by us as a school-house. In size 
of ground it is 45 x 55 feet, with five rooms on 
each floor, most of them beincr verv iar'-o. It 
had been occupited by the elder Blaine ten or 
twelve years when we bought it, and consequent])' 
must be more than seventy years old, yet is in a 
good state of preservation." 

The wife of Ephraim L. Blaine was ?vlaria 
Gillespie. This name indicates Scotcli origin. 
But the Gillespies w^ere not, like the Biaines, 
Presbyterians in religion, but ardent and devout 
Roman Catholics. Their home was in Fayette 
County, Pennsylvania, w^here they were large 
land-owners and ranked hio-h amono- the local e-r'- - 

o o 

tocracy. One of them, Neal Gillespie, crc^- '1 
the Mononi»-ahela river into Washina-ton C oun^' 
and built a stone house on his farm at WV-i 
Brownsville — known as Indian Hill farm. Here 
he exercised a country gentleman's hospitalit\ . 
like that of the Blaines. The house was large and 
commodious, and surrounded by gardens and 
orchards, with vast fields of grain and grass an 1 
pasture land extending along the river. Not far 
away w^as the old residence of Albert Gallatin, 
and many other notable rnen of those days lived 
near by. 

Maria Gillespie was the daughter of Xeal Gil- 
lespie, and was born in this stone mansion at 
West Browmsville. She was noted, all through 
that region for her remarkable beauty, and was 



28 



JAMES G, BLAINE. 



Still more esteemed by all who knew her for her 
high intellectual and spiritual gifts. Said one of 
the /'oldest inhabitants" of that neighborhood: 

I married the sister of Ephraim L. Blaine, and 
he and I went to school together, and I knew him 
nearly all his life. He was a leader in mischief in 
the school, and always a lover of the good things 
of the world. He was the handsomest man I 
ever saw, and his wife was a match for him. She 
was one of the noblest' women I ever knew. She 
inherited all the sterling traits of character and 
strength of mind for which the Gillespies were 
noted." Mr. Blaine and Miss Gillespie had been 
brought up in the most widely different religious 
beliefs, and after their marriage they retained 
those creeds without clashing or controversy. 
Each respected the conscientious convictions of 
the other, and to the end of their lives he was a 
Presbyterian, she a Catholic. By her consent, 
indeed by her wish, however, their children were 
instructed in the Presbyterian faith. 

The characteristic thrift of the Scotchman was 
not^ conspicuous in Ephraim Lyon Blaine. It was 
subordinated to the open-handed hospitality and 
careless ease of the Celt. As a result, his fortune 
dwindled. From Beaver County he moved down 
into Washington County, and settled at West 
Brownsville, and married Maria Gillespie. He 
owned a considerable tract of land in that neigh- 
borhood. But at his wife's desire they made their 



ANCESTRAL MEMORIES, 



29 



home on some of her own property, known as 
''Indian Hill Farm/' adjoining her birthplace. 
Here they built a substantial wooden house, two 
stories high, vv^hich is still standing, in good repair. 
It is close to the road, w^ith only a narrow strip of 
grass in front. At the rear there is an ample gar- 
den, extending almost to the Monongahela river. 
Here Ephraim Blaine and Maria Gillespie, his wife, 
lived for many years, and here their child, the 
famous subject of this history,' was born and spent 
his early years. 

Impaired fortunes presently compelled Ephraim 
Blaine to seek employment in the public service. 
For a number of years he was Justice of the 
Peace atWest Browmsville, and was consequently 
known to his neighbors as ''Squire" Blaine. Then, 
in 1843, he was elected Pro thonotary of Washing- 
ton County. This made it necessary for him to re- 
move to Washington, the county seat, taking, of 
course, his family with him. There he made his 
home for the remainder of his life. At his death, his 
remains were interred at W^est Brownsville, as were 
also those of his wife ; and at the present time 
there may be seen, in the shadow of the old, tiaie- 
beaten village church, two graves marked with a 
single stone, bearing the inscription, ''Ephraim 
L. Blaine and Maria Gillespie Blaine." 



CHAPTER IL 



CHILDHOOD AND STUDENT LIFE. 

The Influences of Heredity — A Characteristic Incident of Childhood — First 
Studies at Home — At Scliool at Lancaster, Ohio — Entering Washing- 
ton College — The Roll of His Classmates — His Leadership in Colltrge 
Life — His Rank as a Student — Little Participation in Aihietic Games 
— Inc^df^nt^ of Student Life — An Original Demonstration — The Pro- 
gramme of Commencement Day — The Prophetic Subject of His Com- 
mencement Oration. 

It has been justly observed that a man's educa- 
tion, to be complete, should begin with his grand- 
parents. In the light of that principle the boy 
that w^as born to Ephraim L, and Maria Gillespie 
Blaine at the Indian Hill farm, West Brownsville, 
on January 31, 1830, began his education in a 
most auspicious manner. -His ancestry, on both 
sides, as w^e have seen, w^as an admirable one. It 
united the traits of thrift, sagacity, enterprise, in- 
dustry, loyalty to the State, loyalty to kin and 
friends, intellectual and physical vigor, love of cult' 
ure and love of adventure, natural leadership, 
and indeed all the qualities of the best American 
manhood and womanhood. Assuredly the child 
that should inherit such a nature would be well 
equipped for whatever lot might befall him in life. 

These advantages of heredity, however, cannot 
be regarded as the sole reasoa of the distinguished 
30 



CHILDHOOD AND STUDENT LIFE. 



31 



success attained by the subject of this work. 
Doubtless hundreds of other children were born 
in the State of Pennsylvania in that same year of 
equally estimable parentage and with equally 
favorable influences of ancestry and early environ- 
ment. Nor can we ascribe his hlorh achievements 
to any fortuitous circumstance of early or later 
life. There are those who, as has been said, have 
greatness thrust upon them. Some event, entirely 
bf^yond the compass of their own effort, brings to 
them an opportunity of distinction. And some 
have even attained eminence who actually had not 
the readiness of talent to embrace and improve 
such an opportunity Vv^hen it was offered to them, 
but literally had it forced upon them. Such, 
assuredly, was not the case with James Gillespie 
Blaine. He was no more born to greatness than 
a host of his fellow- Americans whose names have 
remained unknown to public record and to public 
fame. In no event of his life can it be said that 
greatness was thrust upon him. Whenever op- 
portunity of meritorious achievement presented 
itself, he was ready in spirit and able in talent to 
improve it. But even such circumstances pre- 
sented themselves to him in no extraordinary de- 
gree ; certainly no more than to the average 
American of his time. Only one alternative is 
therefore left : to regard him as a man who has 
achieved greatness by the force of his own inherent 
genius. As we sball unfold the chapters of his 



32 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



life, one by one, and shall review, one by one, his 
achievements in many departments of human in- 
dustry and public service, this fact will become 
more and more apparent. 

He was born, as already stated, at West 
Brownsville, on January 31, 1830. He received 
in his infancy two names, James, for his accom- 
plished grandfather, and Gillespie, for his mother. 
Of his childhood years but little can here be re- 
corded. The parents anJ others who watched 
over him at that time and observed his growing 
traits of character and manifestations of spirit and 
intellect, have passed away, leaving no record of 
their memories of him. His own recollections of 
his early years are not sufficiently clear and de- 
tailed to shed any especially interesting light upon 
that period of his history. There is no reason to 
suppose that his infancy and childhood were 
marked by any extraordinary events, or indeed 
by any unusual manifestations of genius on his 
part Like other children, he had his lovable and 
winning traits, and now and then his fits of mis- 
chief and naughtiness. He Vv'as petted and be- 
loved by his parents, and now and then, doubt- 
less, corrected and chastised. Like other chil- 
dren, he played about the house and garden and 
along the banks of the river ; he had his cronies 
among the boys and girls of the village ; he 
robbed birds' nests, and teased cats and dogs, and 
set traps for rabbits and squirrels. In fact, he 



CHILDHOOD AND STUDENT LIFE, 



33 



was probably just an average healthy, happy, in- 
telligent child. 

A single incident of his early years has been 
put on record, well authenticated. It is worthy of 
repetition, as indicating the sturdy, self-reliant 
and aggressive spirit, which has made him in later 
• years such a forceful leader of m.en in many a 
hot camoaio^n. When he w^as some three or four 
years old, a new well was dug near his father s 
house. Attracted by the appearance of the work, 
he toddled up to the spot and peered over the 
brink into the excavation. One of the workmen, 
standing below, looked up and sav/ him, and, with 
the view of frightening him away, out of possible 
danger of falling into the well, made an ugly face 
at him and som^e menacing gestures with his 
shovel. But the child was not frightened. To 
his courageous little mind, it was a case of fight- 
ing, not for running away. Stooping down, he 
seized from the pile of fresh earth that had been 
thrown out of the well clod after clod, as large as 
he could lift, and hurled them down at the work- 
man, crying, ''There ! take that ! and that ! and 
that ! This vigorous bombardment discomfited 
the workman, who feared that the little fellow 
might begin throwing stones instead of clods, 
and he was presently glad to shout for help at the 
top of his voice, until the mother was attracted to 
the scene and led the pugnacious little fellow 
away. 



34 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



The account already given of his ancestors for 
several generations shows that they were a family 
earnestly given to the acquirement of education 
and liberal culture. His father s worldly means 
were now so reduced that it was not practicable to 
give the boy such educational advantages and 
experience of foreign travel as his father and 
grandfather had enjoyed. But all advantages 
that were within reach were fully and earnestly im- 
proved. James received his first lessons from his 
father and mother, at home, and they were both 
eminently well fitted to lay the foundations of his 
academic education. Next, for a time, he attended 
the village school at West Brownsville. The 
third step was a much more important one and 
probably had some determining influence over his 
entire career. At between ten and eleven years 
of age he was sent to Lancaster, Ohio, to live with 
his uncle, Thomas Evving, then Secretary of the 
Treasury of the United States. He continued 
his studies there in company wath Mr. E wing's 
son, under the direction of William Lyons, 
an uncle of that Lord Lyons who was after- 
ward for a number of years British Minister at 
Washington. Mr. Lyons was a scholar of fine 
attainments and also a cultured and experienced 
man of the world, and was particularly well fitted 
to prepare the boys for college. Mr. Evving's 
home was, moreover, a very important political 
headquarters, and a place of res.ort of many of 



CHIL9H00D AND STUDENT LIFE, 



35 



the public men of the time. Young Blaine, there- 
fore, gamed there his first practical knowledge of 
politics and public affairs, and his mind received 
an impulse in that direction which decided the 
nature of his activities in future life. 

Ephraim L. Blaine became prothonotary of 
Washington County, as already recorded, in 1843. 
and w^ent to live at Washington, the county seat. 
This town was also the seat of a small institution 
of hiorher learninor known as Washinorton Colleore, 
which had been chartered as an academy in 1787, 
and in i8c6 had been raised to collegiate rank. 
It v/as still a small institution, but was well 
equipped in most respects, having an excellent 
Faculty, and was probably as good a college as 
was to be found in that part of the country. Mr. 
Blaine decided to enter his son there as a student, 
so that he might live at home while pursuing his 
college course. This was done in the fall of 1843, 
James being then only thirteen years old. The 
class of 1847, 'vhich he entered, numbered thirty- 
three boys, the oldest of them being nineteen, 
and James G. Blaine, at thirteen, being the 
vouncrest 

The members of this class were, with their 
subsequent professions, as follows : George Baird, 
physician ; Andrew Barr, minister ; James G. 
Blaine, statesman ; Robert C. Colmery, minister; 
Josiah C. Cooper, physician ; Thomas Creighton ; 
George D. Curtis ; Cephas Dodd, physician ; 



36 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



Hugh W. Forbes, minister ; Alexander M. Gow. 
president of Dixon College ; John L. Hampton, 
lawyer ; John C. Hervey ; R. Campbell Holliday, 
lawyer ; John G. Jacob, editor ; Richard H. Lee, 
lawyer ; John V. B. Lemoyne, lav/yer and mem- 
ber of Congress ; Lafayette Markle, lawyer and 
editor ; Gasper M. Miller, physician ; James R. 
Moore, principal of Morgantown Academy ; 
William S. Moore, lawyer and editor ; M. P. Mor- 
rison, ph3^sician ; Robert J. Munce, physician ; 
Edward B, Neely, lawyer ; William M. Orr, law- 
yer; Thomas W. Porter, lawyer; Samuel Power; 
William H. H. M. Pusey, lawyer and member of 
Congress; Huston Quail, lawyer; John A. Rankin; 
Robert Robb, minister ; James H. Smith ; John 
H. Storer, physician ; and Alexander Wilson, 
lawyer. 

Young. Blaine passed his entrance examination 
creditably, and quickly took high rank in his class 
as a student, while personally and socially he was 
one of the most popular boys in college. Dur- 
ing his freshman year he was one of the cham- 
pions of the class in resisting the aggressions and 
hazing inflicted by the sophomores. In the later 
years he was noted for his kindness and gener- 
osity to the members of the successive freshman 
classes that followed him. He was always ready 
to assist and to advise them, to introduce them 
to the ways of the college, and to make their 
lives as pleasant as possible. Whenever disputes 



CHILDHOOD AND STUDENT LIFE, 



39 



arose between the members, of his own or of 
other classes, he was almost certain to be called 
upon to act as arbiter, and his decision was 
seldoai sputed. In athletic sports he took com- 
paratively litde part. He was tall, strong and 
well developed, and might have been the cham- 
pion of his class on the foot-ball field and else- 
where, had he cared for such distinction. But he 
did not. Now and then he participated in run- 
ning matches and other simple contests. But 
from the rougher sports of the atliletic field he 
held aloof Boating, fishing and hunting were 
his favorite diversions, and to them his holidays 
were largely given. 

His favorite studies, and those in which he 
most excelled, Vv^ere mathematics and loofic. He 
delighted in close reasoning and cogent argu- 
ment. In mathematics he was the favorite pupil 
of his teacher. Professor Aldrich, and he easily 
excelled all his classmates in that important 
branch of learning. In history and the other 
English branches he also ranked near the head 
of his class, and in the classics his work vvas at 
least fully up to the average. In general liter- 
ature he was a diligent and earnest reader, and 
he soon made himself w^ell acquainted with all 
the standard works of English literature con- 
tained in the college library. Every book and 
pamphlet relating to American history within liis 
reach he read and re-read, until every fact 



40 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



contained in it was indelibly recorded upon his 
memory. In later years, as we shall see, this study 
of the story of his own country served him most 
usefully, both in his own historical writings, and 
also in his debates in Congress. 

If incidents of his childhood are few, such is 
not the case with stories of his college life. Many 
of his classmates have told interesting tales of 
his doings in the class-rooms and in the social 
gatherings of the students. One of them says 
that he was, in person, ''a raw-boned, angular 
fellow, with a big nose, and so was familiarly 
called * Nosey* Blaine." Another describes him 
as a boy of pleasing manners and agreeable ad- 
dress. He was a better scholar than student ; 
that is to say, his natural quickness of perception 
and power of memory exceeded his ability to 
apply himself to his text-book. He mastered his 
lessons far more quickly and more readily than 
most of his fellows. In the literary society to 
which he belonged he was always a leader, and 
he showed himself there a natural politician and 
parliamentarian. Another of his classmates re- 
members him as having a slight impediment of 
speech, almost amounting to stuttering. This 
proved a detriment to him in declamations and 
debates. One day young Blaine said to his class- 
mate, ''Bill, I would like to be president of our 
literary society. Can't you work it up for me?'' 
The other expressed surprise, saying, *'Why, 



CHILDHOOD AND STUDENT LIFE. 4 1 

what do you know about it? You have never 
taken any part in the debates or other active 
work of the society, and I don't believe you know 
anything about parliamentary law." ''No/' said 
Blaine, "but that doesn't matter. I can commit 
Cushing's Manual to memory in one evening." 
This was no idle boast. Blaine did commit every 
rule in the Manual to m.emory in one evening, 
so thoroughly as to be a complete master of par- 
liamentary practice. At the next election he was 
chosen president of the society, and was the best 
presiding officer it ever had. 

During his college life, Blaine lived at home, in 
his father s family. One morning he was sent to 
market to buy a turkey. It was early in the 
morning, before breakfast. When his father came 
to the breakfast table, the colored cook greeted 
him with, '* Massa Blaine, dat dar turkey what 
Massa Jim buyed dis morning am de queerest 
turkey Fs ever see." "Why, what's the matter 
with it?" asked Mr. Blaine. "Isn't it big enough? 
It surely ought to be, for Jim paid a dollar for it.'' 
"Oh, yes, Massa Blaine, it am big enough, but it 
am de funniest turkey dis nigger ever see." Mr. 
Blaine thereupon went to the kitchen to see the 
fowl, and found it to be a rather venerable goose. 
He forthwith called James in and told him he 
ought to be ashamed of himself for being thus 
imposed upon. " Fifteen years old, Jim, and can't 
tell a turkey from a goose !" "Well," replied the 



42 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



boy, ''I'd like to know how you expect me to tell 
a turkey from a goose when its feathers are off!" 

A characteristic class-room incident, showin^f 
his independence and originality of thought, is as 
follows: One afternoon in May, 1846, in the 
mathematical room, he went to the blackboard to 
demonstrate a problem. He drew the correct 
diagram upon the board, and was proceeding with 
his oral argument, when Professor Aldrich inter- 
rupted him. ''James," he said, "you are not fol- 
lowing the demonstration of the author at all." 
Quick as a flash the lad replied, " What difference 
does that make, Professor ? If I can demonstrate 
it in some other way, just as positively, isn't it 
just as well to do so?" The other boys laughed 
at this, but the Professor, admiring the boy's 
audacity and unquestioned ability, let him go on 
with his original method of proving the proposition. 

In sooial circles in Washington, outside of the 
college, young Blaine was a great favorite, both 
among young mien and young women. He was 
aWays neat and careful in his dress and deport- 
ment, and while fond of fun, was never euiltv of 
any discreditable excesses. Nor did he ever allow 
his love of social pleasures to lure him away from 
his duties as a student. Accordingly, when he 
left Washington, he left behind him in town and 
colleo^e such a reputation for inteprity, eood 
behavior, scholarship and manliness, as might 
have been envied by any of his comrades. 



CMILDHOOD AI^D STUDENT LIFE. 



43 



The Commencement Day, on which he and his 
classmates were graduated, occurred on Septem- 
ber 25, 1847. He was then seventeen years and 
eight months old. His scholarship grades placed 
him almost at the head of his class, and he was 
chosen for the second place of honor, to deliver 
the English salutatory address at Commencement. 
The members of the Faculty, who very gladly 
granted him his diploma, were as follows : The 
Rev. David McConaughty, D. D., LL. D., Presi- 
dent ; Rev. Vv m. P. Aldrich, D. D., Professor of 
Mathematics ; Richard H. Lee, Professor of Belles- 
Lettres ; Rev. David Ferguson, Professor of 
Languages ; Rev. Nicholas Murray, Professor of 
Languages ; Rev. Pvobert Milligan, Professor of 
English Literature ; John L. Gow, Professor of 
Municipal Law; James King, M. D., Professor of 
Physiology and H^/giene. 

The following is a copy of the programme of 
Commencement exercises, with names of the class: 

ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT 

OF 

WASHINGTON COLLEGE, PA. 
Wednesday, September 29, 1847. 



Andrew Barr, 
George Baird, 
James G. Blaine, 
Josiah C. Cooper, 
George D. Curtis, 
Thomas Creighton, 
R. C. Colmery, 
Cephas Dodd, 
Hugh W. Forbes, 
Alexander M. Gow, 
John C. Hervey, 



Graduating Class. 
John H. Hampton, 
R. C. Holliday, 
John G. Jacob, 
Richard H. Lee, 
John V. LeMoyne, 
LaFavette Markle, 
G. H' Miller, 
J. R. ^Moore, 
William S. ^loore, 
Robert J. :Munce, 
M. P. Morrison, 



Edward B. Neely, 
William ^L Orr, 
Samuel Power, 
William FL ISL Pusey, 
T. Wilson Porter, 
Plustcn Quail, 
Robert Robe, 
J. A. Rankin, 
James H. Smith, 
John H. Storer, 
Alexander Wilson. 



44 JAMES G, BLAINE. 

MATRI ALM^ SIMUS HONORL 
ORDER OF EXERCISES. 
MUSIC— PRAYER— MUSIC. 

1st. Latin Salutatory John C. Hervey, Brooke Co., Va. 

MUSIC. 

2d. English Salutatory and Oration, James G. Blaine, 

West Brownville, Pa 

MUSIC. 

3d. Greek Salutatory, , T. W. Porter, Fayette Co., Pa. 

MUSIC 

4tli. Oration— The Sword and the Plough, J. G. Jacob, Wellsburgh, Va. 

MUSIC. 

5th. Oration— Byron, Huston Quail, U nion Valley, Pa. 

MUSIC. 

6th. Oration — The Era of Napoleon,. LaFayette Markle, Mill Grove, Pa. 

MUSIC. 

7th. A Poem— The Collegian, G. D. Curtis, Grove Creek, Va. 

MUSIC. 

8th. Oration — Moral Warfare, J. R. Moore, Wellsville, O. 

MUSIC. 

9th. Oration — Poverty Useful in the Development of Genius, 

R. C. Colmery, Hayesville, O. 

MUSIC. 

loth.ORATiON — The American Boy, . E. B. Neely, Washington City, D. C. 
MUSIC— CONFERRING OF DEGREES— MUSIC. 

nth. Valedictory . . . = William M. Orr, Wayne Co., O. 

MUSIC. 
BENEDICTION. 



The topic of James G. Blaine's oration was not 
announced on the printed programme. It was 
• ''The Duty of an Educated American.'' This, too, 
is significant. It showed the trend of his thoughts 
and purposes, and was in a marked measure pro- 
phetic of the life work upon which he was about 
to enter. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE TEACHER. 

Plans for a Life of Teaching — His First Engagement in Kentucky — An 
Entire Change of Environment — Difficulties of his Position — Leader 
in a Free Fight — His Courtship and Marriage — His Contact with 
Slavery and his Views Thereof — Development of a strong Anti- 
Slavery Sentiment — His Return to the North — Studying Law and 
Teaching the Blind — ^His First Book — Removal to the Pine Tree 
State. 

A g^reat number of young men in this country, 
every year, immediately after leaving college, seek 
employment as school-teachers. Such a record 
appears in the biography of almost every public 
man of high rank. It is related of many Presi- 
dents, Senators and Supreme Court Judges. 
With some, the intention is to make teaching a 
permanent profession. But the majority enter 
upon it merely as a temporary makeshift, as a 
means of support for a year or two, until they 
can settle down" in the profession or business 
chosen as their life-work. It is not surprising that 
so many young men fresh from the class room 
seek themselves to be instructors in other class 
rooms. The very experience of their own 
school life, so fresh in mind, gives them an espe- 
cial familiarity with the technical details of teach- 
ing. Perhaps, too, the sense of freedom and 
45 



46 



JAMES G. BLAIXE. 



relief at their emancipation from the authority of 
their own instructors inspires them, as a sort of 
poetic vengeance, to seek to exert their authority 
in turn over other students. In the case of those 
who really intend to pursue teaching as their life- 
work, it is probably advantageous to enter upon it 
immediately after their own graduation. In the 
other case, where teaching is a mere makeshift or 
stepping-stone, the wisdom of the entire proced- 
ure is gravely to be doubted. The profession is 
fraught with responsibihties too serious and duties 
too arduous to be undertaken lighdy or without 
that devotion that alone can exist where the work 
undertaken is of a permanent nature. He who 
is a teacher merely for a year or two, until he can 
get into some better position, is apt to be a per- 
functory time-server, careless of the best interests 
of his school. 

When James G. Blaine left Washington College 
he too became a school-teacher. It was necessary 
for him to enter some profitable employment at 
once. His father's fortunes had been steadily de- 
clining, and the young man now found himself 
practically set adrift in the v/orld, with no money 
or other financial resources, and only a sound 
mind in a sound body and a well-developed char- 
acter with which to make his way. It is said, ap- 
parently on credible authority, that he had formed 
a resolution to devote his life to the work of 
teaching. If such be the case, he probably formed 



THE TEACHER. 



47 



that resolution under the stress of some momen- 
tary impulse. It could scarcely have been the re- 
sult of deliberate and matured consideration. 
True, he was physically and mentally well 
equipped for die work. But the whole trend of 
his ambitious and masterful disposition was in the 
direction of some more extended field of action. 
There might be before him no career more credit- 
able or more beneficent, in its own compass. The 
work of the true and conscientious teacher is not 
to be despised by even the greatest genius. But 
beside the equipment of a teacher, Mr. Blaine 
possessed other resources that fitted him for more 
effective work in another sphere ; and of this fact 
he could scarcely, even at that early age, have 
been unconscious. 

It is safe to assume, then, that he was led to the 
school-teacher's desk partly by the necessity of 
earning his own living, partly by some half-com- 
prehended impulse that made him think for the mo- 
ment that that was his mission in life, and perhaps 
in still greater measure by some utterly unrecog- 
nized and indefinable influence, which men may 
call destiny or fate or chance, which in an inscru- 
table manner plays an overruling part in almost 
every life, and which in this case, altogether unex- 
pectedly and' beyond the ken of prophecy, led 
young Blaine straight into circumstances that un- 
alterably moulded and fixed the Vvdiole cast of his 
life. 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



Only a few weeks elapsed between the ending 
of his life as a student and the beginning of 
of his life as a teacher. He was graduated in the 
latter part of September. "In October/' he says, 
*'Iwent to Kentucky." Why he went thither is 
unknown. It may have been merely for the 
reason that Kentucky was a younger common- 
wealth than Pennsylvania, and that therefore there 
seemed to him better opportunities of making his 
way there. Certainly he found social conditions 
very different from those of his old home. He 
went from a free State into a slave State ; from a 
quiet, peaceable community into one where a 
more restless, aggressive and at times turbulent, 
spirit prevailed. This very fact was of great ad- 
vantage to him, for it cultivated and developed 
his spirit of authority and his gift of leadership. 
He was brought into contact with people of aristo- 
cratic impulses, having an utter disdain of all 
restriction. For him to establish and maintain 
authority among them and over them would be 
no mean task. If he should succeed in it, he 
would have proven his right to be reckoned as a 
leader of men wherever he might go. 

The institution in which he became a teacher, 
or professor, as he was called, was a military 
school at Blue Lick Springs, Kentucky. It con- 
tained about five hundred young men and boys. 
They were, nearly all of them, the sons of 
v/ealthy slaveholders and planters, imbued with 



THE TEACHER, 



49 



the characteristic spirit of the Southern aris- 
tocracy. A more difficult body to govern, and 
especially for a stranger from a Northern State to 
govern, it v/ould have been difficult to find. It 
was especially trying for Mr. Blaine, because he 
was yet barely eighteen years old, no older than 
many of the lads who were to be under his 
authority. But he addressed himself to the task 
most tactfully. He did not allow his authority to 
be for a moment questioned. His commands 
must be obeyed with military promptness and 
precision. At the same time he entered as fully 
as possible into sympathy with the boys. Within 
a few days after his arrival at the institute he had 
fixed in his marvellous memory the name of every 
one of the five hundred. He could not only call 
any one of them by his given name, but he 
knew where his home was, and something about 
his family, and was able to sympathize with his 
tastes and feelings and to enter heartily into his 
ambitions. Thus he made all the students feel 
that he was not only their teacher and master, 
but their friend and comrade as well. Under 
these circumstances it is not to be wondered at 
that he quickly became the most popular member 
of the Faculty. 

A few months after his arrival there, an inci- 
dent occurred which greatly tried his temper and 
which also indisputably established his reputation 
for coolness and personal courage. A question 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



arose concerning- the removal of the school to 
another place,, and a bitter dispute resulted be- 
tween the Faculty of the school on the one hand 
and the property owners of the neighborhood on 
the other. In those days of so-called chivalry," 
a resort to physical violence was apt to be made 
for the settlement of any seriously disputed 
matter, and this was done in the present instance. 
There was a desperate nielee, in which all the 
members of the Faculty participated and in which 
knives and pistols were freely used. Professor 
Blaine had earnestly striven to effect a peaceful 
settlement of the controversy and to avoid a con- 
flict. When the fight actually began, he tried his 
utmost to restrain the combatants. But seeing 
that these well-meant efforts were fruitless, he 
joined his fellow-members of the Faculty and 
went in to fight hard and to the bitter end. He 
used no vv^eapons but his fists, but he employed 
these with such effect that he was easily the leader 
of his party, and it was chiefly owing to his 
prowess that the Faculty came out of the struggle 
victorious. The prestige which he thus, although 
reluctantly, acquired, established for him a domi- 
nant authority at the school which was never 
thereafter called into question. 

After about three years of service at Blue Lick 
Springs, that is to say, in the fall of 1850, the 
young professor came to the conclusion that 
teaching was not the vocation v\ Vvhich he would 



THE TEACHER, 



SI 



realize the highest destiny of his life. He had 
given to the work his most earnest attention and 
fullest devotion. But the duties Vv^ere irksome to 
him, and the petty trials and details of the daily 
routine were vexing to a man of his high spirit 
and broad views. Moreover, he Vv^as entirely out 
of sympathy w^ith the social sysj;em by which he 
was surrounded in Kentucky. While he avoided 
coming into direct conflict with it, he disliked it 
more and more each day, and each day it became 
harder for him to conceal that dislike. He there- 
fore determined to return to his native State. 
But before doingr so an event occurred which was 

o 

one of the most important in his w^hole career. 
This was his marriage. 

The president of the institute at Blue Lick 
Springs was Colonel Thornton F. Johnson, whose 
wdfe was also an enthusiastic educator. Mrs. 
Johnson conducted at Millersburg, some miles 
away, a school for girls. Professor Blaine fre- 
quently visited this school and there became 
acquainted with one of its teachers, by nam.e 
Harriet Stanwood. An intimacy soon sprang up 
between them. Mr. Blaine's visits to Millersburg 
became more and more frequent,, and at about the 
time when he determined to return to the North, 
they became engaged. It is not improbable, in- 
deed, -that Miss Stanwood had much to do with 
the forming of his resolution to leave Kentucky. 
She herself belonged to the North, her former 



52 



JAMES G, BLAINE, 



home having been 'at Augusta, Maine. At any 
rate, they agreed to return to the North together, 
and early in 185 1, just before Mr. Blaine resigned 
his post at Blue Lick Springs and left Kentucky, 
they were married. 

Another circumstance of Mr. Blaine's life in 
Kentucky that had a lasting influence upon his 
career was his personal observation of and contact 
with the institution of human slavery. He had 
probably grown up through childhood and youth 
with feelings of comparative indifference if not of 
tolerance toward it. He had known nothing of it 
save by hearsay, and there is no indication that 
his family or friends impressed upon him any very 
aggressive anti-slavery opinions. His father was 
undoubtedly an anti-slavery man. But it is not 
known that he was conspicuously identified with 
that cause or that he took more than a passive 
interest in it. Mr. Blaine has truly said that he 
imbibed anti-slavery opinions from his earliest 
youth. Pennsylvania was, of course, a free State. 
But it lay close to the slave States and its social 
and business relations with them were most in- 
timate. The Cumberland Valley, in which was 
situated Carlisle, the old home of the Blaines, was 
strongly imbued with southern sentiment ; and it 
was a member of Congress from the western part 
of the State, Judge Thompson, of Erie, who 
moved the final adoption of the Fugitive Slave 
bill. So while young Blaine grew up a lover of 



THE TEACHER. 53 

freedom and a disbeliever in slavery, he was con- 
stantly surrounded more or less by upholders and 
apologists of that institution. And as he and his 
family did not engage in open controversy on the 
subject, they probably regarded it with a certain 
degree of toleration. At any rate, his attitude 
toward it, down to the time of his residence in 
Kentucky, was one of passive rather than active 
hostility. 

Kentucky was, of all the slave States, that in 
which the condition of the negroes was most 
tolerable, and in which the institution of slavery 
assumed its least offensive form. What Mr. 
Blaine saw and heard, however, was enough. 
His manhood revolted against it. The anti- 
slavery sentiments of his childhbod and youth 
were now, in his early manhood, quickened into 
new and active life. And before he left Kentucky 
he was possessed of an ardent and unquenchable 
hatred of slavery, and a fixed purpose both to 
oppose its further extension and to labor for its 
total abolition. A few years afterward he had 
occasion to refer to this incident in his life, in lan- 
guage which may well be quoted here. It was after 
he had settled in the State of Maine and w^as 
editing a newspaper there. In his writings he 
was outspoken in the cause of freedom. A rival 
sheet took him to task, therefore, on the ground 
that, having lived in the South and enjoyed its 
hospitality, he should not speak against its 



54 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



institutions. To this queer attack the young- 
editor made the following vigorous reply : 

''We find the following precious morceau in 
The Age of Saturday last : 

" * One of the editors of the new Morrill organ in this city has too re- 
cently partaken of the slaveholder's salt," and reposed beneath tlie 
shadow of the "peculiar institution," to authorize him to lecture contem- 
poraries on their duty to the cause of freedom," We would recommend 
to his consideration Shakespeare's advice to new beginners in the art 
theatrical.' 

''We — the editor referred to in this would-be 
severe paragraph — have to plead guilty to a res- 
idence of four years, prior to and including 1850, 
in the State of Kentucky. We were engaged in 
wdiat we still consider the honorable capacity of 
a teacher in a literary institution, then and now 
in deservedly high standing with the several 
States, both North and South, which patronize 
and sustain it. Invited to take the position for a 
certain pecuniary consideration, which we regu- 
larly received, and having to the best of our 
ability and to the satisfaction of all concerned dis- 
charged our duties, we have been under the im- 
pression that the matter was closed and nothing 
due from either party to the other in the way of 
personal obligation or political fealty. The Age, 
however, seems to think that, having partaken of 
the ' slaveholder's salt ' (for which we paid), we 
should be dumb to the slaveholder's wronor-doino-. 
So conscious are they of the potency of a little 
'administration salt' in shutting their own mouths 



THE TEACHER. 



57 



and .stifling their real sentiments on the slavery 
question that they cannot conceive of any one 
taking a more independent or more manly course. 

We beg leave further to say (since we are re- 
luctantly forced into this allusion to self) that the 
anti-slavery sentiments which, from our earliest 
youth, we imbibed in our native Pennsylvania — 
the first of the ' old thirteen ' to abolish slavery — 
were deepened and strengthened by a residence 
among slaveholders, and that nowhere, either on 
slave soil or on free soil, have we expressed other 
feelings than those of decided hostility to the ex- 
tension of the withering curse. 

Our residence in the South gave us, we hope, 
the advantage of a thorough comprehension of 
the question of slavery in all its aspects, and of 
the views of the men v/ho sustain it. It tauorht 
us, among other things, that slaveholders, whilst 
wholly unreasonable and even perfidious in their 
aggressions upon freedom, have yet the magna- 
nimity to depise a Northern traitor ; and that all 
organists and apologists of doiigh-facery, after 
earning the contempt of freemen at home, have 
only for consolation the kicks and cuffs of their 
Southern masters. 

''But we forbear; the opinion now current 
is that our neiorhbors of The Ao^e, in consentino- 
to preach acquiescence under the 'crushing out' 
process of Pierce and Gushing, went it dirt cheap, 
and have even failed to receive the whole of the 



58 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



Stipulated compensation. Under this belief the 
derision which they so richly merited, and at first 
so bountifiilly received, is rapidly subsiding and 
giving place to a feeling of pity ; in this, we trust, 
we have the generosity to share, and cannot, 
therefore, find it in our heart to add a single taunt 
or unkind remark." 

It was in the- spring of 185 1 that Mr. Blaine 
and his bride turned their faces toward the North. 
His intention now was to study and engage in the 
practice of the law. He accordingly returned to 
his old home in Washington County and for a 
time read law in the office of his father. In the 
summer of 1852, however, he removed to Phila- 
delphia to complete his law course under the 
guidance of Theodore Cuyler, Esq. In order to 
maintain himself and his family while he was 
finishing his law studies, he determined to con- 
tinue work as a teacher. Soon after his arrival in 
Philadelphia he learned that a new teacher was 
required in the boys' department of the Pennsyl- 
vania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind. 
Accordingly, he went thither one afternoon at the 
beginning of August and made application for the 
place. There were thirty or forty other appli- 
cants at the same time, and he had no letters of 
introduction and no influential friends to aid him. 
His appearance and manner, however, so favora- 
bly impressed the authorities that he was immedi- 
ately engaged to be the principal teacher of the 



THE TEACHER. 



59 



boys. He brought his young wife and their 
infant son, Walker, thither, and for two years 
they made their home in Philadelphia. The insti- 
tudon was situated at the corner of Race and 
Twentieth streets, and both Mr. and Mrs. Blaine 
devoted themselves earnestly to the welfare of its 
inmates. He was a teacher of mathematics and 
other branches, and Mrs. Blaine assisted him and 
often read aloud to the pupils. She thus read to 
them nearly all of the works of Dickens. 

There is still to be seen in the office of this in- 
stitution a most interestinof memorial of Mr. 
Blaine's work there. It is his first important 
literary production, a thick quarto manuscript 
volume, bound in dark brown leather and lettered 

Journal.'' The title-page bears the following 
inscription in ornamental penmanship, executed 
by William Chapin, the principal of the institution : 

JOURNAL 
of the 

PENNSYLVANIA INSTITUTION 
for the 

INSTRUCTION OF THE BLIND, 
from its foundation. 

Compiled from official records 
by 

JAMES G. BLAINE, 
1854. 



6o 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



Mr. Blaine prepared this work with great labor 
from the minute book of the Board of Managers, 
giving in it a historical account of the institution 
from the date of its foundation to that of his 
departure from it. It is remarkable for the care- 
ful method of its arrangement. At the beginning 
is a table giving explanatians of all abbreviations 
used in it. Then come some Notes in Regard 
to the Origin of the Pennsylvania Institution for 
the Instruction of the Blind." There follow i88 
pages of records, all entered by Mr. Blaine with 
the utmost neatness and accuracy. At the 
end of each year's record is an elaborate table, 
summarizing the statistics given in the preceding 
pages. There are also alphabetical lists of offi- 
cers of the institution, and the thirteenth name 
among those of the ''principal teachers" is that 
of James G. Blaine, in his ov^m writing, with the 

date ''from August 5, 1852, to — The 

record is com.pleted with the date written by 
another hand, " September 23, 1854." 

Mr. Chapin, the principal who accepted Mr. 
Blaine's application and who was associated with 
him during his two years of service, says that 
while a large number of persons answered his 
advertisement for a teacher, he had no hesitation 
whatever in selecting Mr. Blaine, so favorably 
was he impressed by his manly presence and 
intellectual features. He was not disappointed 
in his choice. Mr. Blaine had to teach his pupils 



THE TEACHEIL 



6i 



chiefly by the oral method, and for this difficult 
work his brilHant mental powers were exactly 
suited. He was a good talker ; he was fluent, 
and his choice of words was admirable. His 
memory of facts and figures and persons was ex- 
traordinary. He w^as young and impulsive, and 
was apt to jump at conclusions, but his conclu- 
sions were usually correct and he was always 
ready to defend them by argument. 

One of those who were pupils under Mr. Blaine 
says that they all had a sincere and hearty affec- 
tion for him and for his wife. " They were both 
always ready to do anything for our instruction 
or entertainment, and they thus employed a great 
deal of their leisure time upon which he had really 
no claim. Mrs. Blaine used to read Dickens to 
us, and Mr. Blaine often read from a most amus- 
inof work entitled 'Charcoal Sketches.' Now and 
then we would have a spelling bee. Usually Mr. 
Blai^ne gave out the words that were to be spelled. 
But sometimes he w^ould let one of the older boys 
do that and would himself take a place among the 
pupils. Then we w^ould have great fun in trying 
to spell him down.'' 

Mr. Blaine completed his law studies in Phila- 
delphia, but did not enter upon the practice of 
that profession. Nor did he tarry long in that 
city. He thought he saw in the vast field of 
journalism ample scope for the exercise of his 
abilities, and especially for that leadership of 



62 



James g. blainb. 



thought which was an essential and dominant note 
of his character. Mrs. Blaine, moreover, had a 
strong desire to return to her old home in the 
Pine Tree State. Accordingly, in the summer of 
1854, to the great regret of all the students and 
of his associates in the Faculty, he resigned his 
place in the Institution for the Blind and turned 
his face again toward the North and East. He 
went with his wife and child to the beautiful city 
of Augusta, on the Kennebec river, there to make 
their permanent home. Thenceforth his fame 
was identified v/ith that commonwealth, and he 
was known as Blaine of Maine/' 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE EDITOR. 

Political Condition of the Country — Tiie Slavery Question Dominant — Mr. 
Blaine's Removal to Augusta aad Editorship There — Samples of His 
Vigorous \YritiDg — ^His Share in the Organization of the Republican 
Party — A Delegate to Its First National Convention — His First Stump 
Speech — Advocacy of the Principles of the New Party — Removal to 
Portland — Three Years of Service in the Maine Legislature. 

Mr. Blaine entered upon his political career, as 
a journalist, at a singularly important period in 
the history of the United States. The impend- 
ing crisis/' which had been impending since the 
government was founded, was evidently near at 
hand. Webster, Clay, Benton, Calhoun, Doug-' 
las, Seward, Sumner, Davis and their compeers 
were the men of the hour at Washington, the 
leaders of the two great parties. The Mexican 
War had just been fought, for the benefit of the 
slaveholding South. The discovery of gold in 
California had led to the swift establishment of a 
mighty commonwealth on the Pacific coast. Other 
territories and States were being organized in the 
West, and the question of the day was whether 
they should be slave or free. The settlement of 
this question also involved the question of the 
perpetuity of slavery itself, and the continued 
dominance of slave-state influence at Washington. 
63 



64 



JAMES G. BLAih^E. 



If the new States were free, the slave power would 
soon be in a hopeless minority in Congress and 
in the Electoral College. The legislation of the 
Nation would no longer be in the interest of 
slavery. The Fugitive Slave law would be re- 
pealed. And the ''peculiar institution would be 
doomed. 

There were still those who looked for a peace- 
ful solution of the problem, and they sought that 
end by compromises which, settled nothing and 
scarcely postponed the crisis. Others foresaw 
clearly that an appeal w^ould at last be made to 
arms. One thing was evident to all, that a con- 
siderable reorganization of parties, largely on 
sectional lines, must soon be effected. Indeed, it 
was already in progress. New leaders were com- 
ing forvv^ard, new rallying cries were heard. 
Should slavery be extended or restricted, w^as the 
immediate question. Should slavery continue to 
exist, v/as heard in its echo ; and beyond that, 
should the States or the Nation be sovereign. 

Already there had been scenes of violence in 
many places. Arthur Tappan had been mobbed 
in New York, Prudence Crandall in Connecticut, 
William Lloyd Garrison in Boston, and Orange 
Scott at Worcester, for daring to speak against 
the crime of slavery. Scores of other estimable 
men and women in many places had met with 
similar ill-treatment. Owen Lovejoy had been 
murdered in Illinois, and his assassins acquitted. 



6s 



Samuel Hoar had been expelled from South 
Carolina. By these and other means the slave 
power gave it to be understood that ic would 
resent and resist with physical force any at- 
tempt even to criticise its conduct. These 
things occurred in Mr. Blaine's childhood. While 
he was a student, Texas was annexed, the Mexican 
War was fought, and the Wilmot Proviso was 
enacted. 

While he was a teacher in Kentucky, the Free 
Soil party came into prominence ; Zachary Taylor 
was elected President by the Whigs on a non- 
committal platform ; the struggle over the ques- 
tion of slavery in the Pacific Coast territories was 
ended, for the time, at least, by Mr. Clay's cele- 
brated compromise measure of 1850 ; and the in- 
famous Fugitive Slave law was put upon the 
statute book. This latter act became a law on 
September 18, 1850, and immediately a National 
campaign of slave hunting was organized. In 
Pennsylvania slave hunts were especially numer- 
ous, owing to the proximity of that State to the 
slave region, and they were conducted with almost 
incredible brutality. Kentucky, too, witnessed 
many dreadful scenes, of hunting, torture and 
murder of negroes w^ho were trying to escape 
from bondage. These things came directly under 
Mr. Blaine's observation, and filled his mind with 
wrath and Vv^ith a stern determination to make his 
life-work tell for freedom. 



66 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



During his life in Philadelphia, the young profes- 
sor witnessed the triumph of the pro-slavery De- 
mocracy in the National election of 1852, and the 
commencement of the dreadful struo-o-le in Kan- 
sas. Three of the chief party leaders, Clay, 
Webster and Calhoun, had died, and others were 
coming forward to take their places. The Whig- 
party was on the verge of dissolution, and the 
Republican party was rising into importance. 
Congress, by its conduct over the Kansas-Ne- 
braska bill, had practically invited a physical con- 
flict in those territories. The invitation was ac- 
cepted. Nev/ England colonists flocked thither, 
as permanent settlers, determined to keep Kan- 
sas free, by force of armis if need be ; and Mis- 
souri border ruffians" also went thither, equally 
determined, by force of arms, to impose slavery 
upon the young Com.monwealth. This bloody con- 
flict was just fairly begun v/hen, in 1854, Mr. 
Blaine rem.oved fi'om Philadelphia to Augusta, 
and, becominp-one of the editors of The Keii^iebec 
joiir?ial, began to exert upon public affairs the 
influence of his brain and pen. 

The State of Maine v/as at that time a more 
important member of the Union than it is at the 
present time ; not that it has decUned, but that 
other portions of the country have so greatly in- 
creased in population and influence. Its news- 
papers ranked high as exponents of political prin- 
ciples and leaders of public thought. And among 



THE EDITOR. 



67 



them The Kennebec yotcr7cal occw^i^d^, prominent 
position. It was, indeed, the most important paper 
in that part of the State. Wilham H. Wheeler and 
William H. Simpson were its owners, the former 
being also its chief editor. In the fall of 1S54, 
Mr. Wheeler retired, selling his interest to his 
partner, and almost immediately afterward, Mr. 
Simpson disposed of the entire property to Joseph 
Baker and James G. Blaine. Mr. Blaine was as- 
sisted in the operation by his Vvdfe's brother, Jacob 
Stanwood, of Augusta. The new firm took pos- 
session of the paper on November 10, 1854, 
and made the followinof editorial announcement 
of their purposes : 

" Politically, The jom^na I will pursue the same 
course it has marked out for the last two months. 
We shall cordially suj^port the Morrill or Repub- 
lican party, the substantial principles of which 
are, as we understand them : freedomi, temper- 
ance, river and harbor improvement Vvithin Con- 
stitutional limits, liomesteads for freem^en, and a 
just administration of the public lands of the 
State and Nation. We shall advocate the cause 
of popular education as the surest safeguard of our 
Republican institutions, and especially the com- 
mon schools of the State and city. We 
shall devote a department of our paper each 
v/eek to relioious intelliorence of all kinds, and 
desire that our friends of all denominations will 
consider themselves invited freely to communicate 



68 



JAMES G, BLAINE. 



anything in this department which they wish to have 
made pubhc, particularly notices of rehgious con- 
ventions, ordinations and meetings of such kind/' 

This editorial was doubtless from the pen of 
Mr. Blaine, who became the principal leader-writer 
of The JouniaL His articles were, in matter and 
in style, entirely characteristic. They were 
marked by the utmost clearness and directness of 
statement, by cogent and convincing logic, and 
by great earnestness and courage. He never 
shrank from controversy on matters of political 
principle, and he almost never failed to cover his 
antagonists with confusion. He never waited to 
see what the drift of public sentiment would be 
before committing the paper to a certain policy, 
but unhesitatingly spoke out for the course which 
he deemed riMit, reoardless of fear or favor. 
And while his ability to array facts and figures 
and arguments was extraordinary, he had also the 
happy gift of inspiring his readers with that in- 
tense earnestness and enthusiasm that dominated 
his own nature. 

A volume might readily be compiled from his 
v/ritings in The journal, a volume of genuine and 
permanent interest. There is space in the pres- 
ent work for only a few brief quotations. Here 
is one, introducing the Hon. Cassius M. Clay to 
the Northern public. Mr. Clay had come to New 
England to lecture on the question of slavery, 
and the relation of the Federal Government to 



THE EDITOR. 



69 



that institutioPx. Mr. Blaine had learned much of 
him during his residence in Kentucky, and wrote 
of him in Tlie Jcntrvcal as follows : 

Mr. Clay stands in the front rank of the 
opponents of slavery, and has taken that position, 
not with the applause of friends and cheers of 
approbation from the crowd, but with the loss of 
good name at home and the sundering of many 
personal ties, and even more, with imminent peril 
to life and limb. He braves it all unquailed, 
though, for he is a man of true moral heroism and 
undaunted personal bravery. Wl^en he first as- 
sumed his anti-slavery position in Kentucky, they 
tried to bribe him^ widi office and place. The 
Whigs offered him the Lieutenant- Governorship, 
and then a seat in Congress as Representative, 
with the reversion of John J. Crittenden's Sena- 
torial chair. But he scorned their offers, for he 
was earnest and conscieniious in his opposition to 
slavery. They next tried force, and mobbed his 
printing office and carried off his press to Cincin- 
nati, like brave men, while Clay was confined to 
his room with serious illness ; and when all these 
demonstrations were ineffectual 'hey resorted to 
personal violence and hired assassins to seek his 
blood — but all in vain ; he has conquered even 
Kentucky, and is stronger this day than at any 
other time of his life. 

''As a speaker, Mr. Clay is very earnest and 
persuasive ; not polished either in manner or 



70 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



diction, but still irresistibly pleasing. He speaks 
from the soul, and the moment you hear him, you 
are assured that he gives utterance only to what 
he knov/s and feels to be the truth and the cause 
of human freedom. 

Mr. Clay is a man of fine personnel, in the 
early prime of life — being only a few years on the 
shady side of forty, and, but for his full suit of 
gray, readily passing for ten years younger. He 
resembles ex-Vice-President Dallas, who always 
ranked as the finest-looking man on Pennsylvania 
avenue." 

A few days later an act of the Legislature of 
Indiana, then controlled by the pro-slavery party, 
roused his ire, and he made these scathing com- 
ments upon it : 

It is not to be wondered at that a Legislature 
which would send John Pettit to the United States 
Senate would perform any other mean act which 
a dishonest cupidity might instii^ate or suggest. 
Accordingly it was reserved for that same honor- 
able body to enact a law in regard to the colored 
citizens of their State, most oppressive in its daily 
operations, and most disgraceful from the motives 
and reasons which induced its passage. Let us 
give a brief history of it. 

. Railroad connection between Louisville, Ky., 
and Cincinnati has long been a desideratum, and 
would years since have been accomplished but for 
a jealousy which existed on the part of both cities 



THE EDITOR, 



/I 



as to which side of the Ohio river the road should be 
built on. For commercial reasons, each city and 
section desired it should be on their side, while 
the Kentuckians had an additional objection to its 
going on the Northern side of the river in the 
fact that a facility would be thereby afforded for 
the escape of their slaves. They demanded some 
security against this terrible danger, and the 
Indiana Legislature — quick ' to crook the preg- 
nant hinges of the knee that thrift might foUov/ 
fawning ' — immediately responded to the desire 
of their Kentucky neighbors by annexing a condi- 
tion to the charter of the railroad company that no 
colored person should be admitted as a passenger 
in their cars unless he produce evidence of his 
freedom. 

''The following account of a recent case under 
the law^, clipped from an exchange, will briefly ex- 
plain its operation and the odious construction by 
which it is sus Lameci \ 

'A colored man in Indiana lately brought suit 
before a magistrate against the jeffersonville 
Railroad Company because they refused to admit 
him to the cars as a passenger until he produced 
evidence of his freedom,. The justice awarded 
him twenty dollars damages, but the company ap- 
pealed to the Circuit Court of Clarke county, 
and a few davs ao-o the decision was reversed. 
The Court (which is a free State tribunal) held, 
although the legal presumption is that all persons 



72 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



are free, yet the fact being that some colored per- 
sons are not free, it is reasonable that the matter 
should be settled in each case at the time the col- 
ored person applies for his seat/ 

Could any argument, pretending to the dig- 
nity of a ground for legal decision, be more shal- 
low or more disgraceful ? Admitting, as the judge 
does, that freedom must be the presumed state of 
every man, he offsets all advantages arising from 
that presumption by adding that as some colored 
persons are not free, it is reasonable that the mat- 
ter should be settled in each case. What is the 
presumption worth if it must be sustained every 
time by positive evidence ? 

*'Such leor-islation is in stronof contrast with the 
course pursued by the Ohio Legislature in 1847, 
when the subject of granting to a company the 
right to construct a brid^-e across the Ohio river 
at Cincinnati, came before them. The Kentucky 
Leo-islature, from whom the ria-ht had been ob- 
tained, so far as they could grant it, had cum- 
bered the charter v/ith such restrictions in regard 
to colored people as made the Cincinnati com- 
pany and all their agents regular slave-catchers. 
But one honorable course was left to the Ohio 
Legislature, and they followed it manfully. They 
refused the charter and reprobated in strong 
terms, expressed in special resolution, an act 
that would so far compromise the honor and dig- 
nity of a great free State. Would that their 



THE EDITOR. 



75 



example had made a deeper impression on their 
neighbors of Indiana. But we confess that we ex- 
pect little from that free State which will keep in 
the Senate of the United States a notorious slave- 
holder, Jesse D. Bright* and a still more notorious 
blackguard, John Petblt. We are really afraid 
that their repudiation of the Nebraska treachery 
was only a spasmodic effort, to be followed by a 
lethargic supineness more fatal than actual wrong- 
doing. 

In the political campaign of 1852 there were 
three parties in the field : the Democratic, op- 
posed to the agitation of the slavery question in 
any form whatever, in Congress or out of it ; the 
Whig, also discountenancing such agitation, and 
holding to the Clay Compromise of 1850 as a fi- 
nality ; and the Free Soil, actively hostile to ex- 
tension of slavery and to all pro-slavery compro- 
mises. The Democratic party was well organized, 
united and vigorous. The Whig party was on 
the verge of disintegration ; and the Free Soil 
party showed no promise of gaining ascendency 
or indeed any important strength. But, as 
already started, influences were at work, largely 
in the Whig party in the Northern States, toward 
the formation of a new organization, distinctly 
opposed to slavery and committed to the prohi- 
bition of its extension into any of the territories. 

The Democrats were successful in the Presi- 
dential election of 1852, their candidate, Pierce, 
5 



76 



JAMES G, BLAINE, 



receiving 1,601,274 votes, against 1,386,580 for 
Scott, Whig, and 155,825 for Hale, Free Soil. 
Thereafter the decline of the Whig party was 
greatly accelerated, and it did not strongly figure 
again in a National contest. In 1854 the Ameri- 
can party developed some strength, its chief prin- 
ciple being hostility to the Roman Catholic 
Church and to foreign influences in politics. Its 
career was, however, short-lived. At the same 
time the anti-slavery members of the Whig 
party, the avowed Abolitionists, and the Free 
Soilers began to come together on a common 
platform, denying the right of any territorial Leg- 
islature to establish slavery, and declaring it the 
right and the duty of Congress to admit Kansas as 
a free State, and to insist upon freedom in all the 
territories and in the new States that should 
thereafter be admitted to the Union. Thus was 
formed the organization known as the Republican 
party. During 1854 and 1855 it developed con- 
siderable strength in various Northern States, 
and in 1856 made its appearance in politics as a 
National organization. To it Mr. Blaine gave 
instant and most hearty allegiance. He was one 
of its two or three chief organizers in the State of 
Maine, and his newspaper was there its chief pub- 
lic exponent. The new party naturally met with 
much opposition and incurred much hostile criti- 
cism at the very outset of its career. It was 
charged with being a sectional organization, and 



THE EDITOR. * 77 

with threatening the disruption of the American 
Union. Against these and similar attacks it 
found in Mr. Blaine one of its most effective de- 
fenders. At the close of 1854, while the new 
organization was still in a formative condition, he 
wrote in The Kevjtebec yotcrnal 2.'^ follows, in re- 
ply to the comments of a contemporary on ''The 
Permanency of the Republican Party'' : 

''The whole history of parties and opinions in 
the United States conclusively demonstrates that 
they are of slow grow^th, and the result of much 
toilsome effort and patient seed-growing. From 
the adoption of the American Constitution in 1789 
to 1801 the same class of political opinions was 
predominant in this government, and Washington 
and the elder Adams were their exponents. Then 
there was a revolution, and the Jeffersonian class 
was inaugurated and continued more than twenty- 
five years, till the opposition completely died out. 
Then in 1829 the dynasty of Andrew Jackson 
commenced, and, with only slight deviations, has 
continued for about twenty-five years to the pres- 
ent time, till nearly every principle which was 
originated under his administration has become 
the settled and permanent judgment of the coun- 
try and been incorporated into its history and 
practice. Time and experience have demon- 
strated their wisdom, or the elastic spirit of the 
American people has closed over their scars, and 
all opposition to them has gradually died out, and 



78 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



they have ceased to be issues of the present day. 
In the meantime, and extending back about 
twenty years, new issues have sprung up. Cer- 
tain minds in the free States began to feel the 
overwhelming influence of slavery in the govern- 
ment and to behold the disproportionate power it 
wielded in the election and appointment of the 
highest officers in the gift of the people, and were 
alarmed at it. They began to raise their voices 
of remonstrance against it through the press, the 
pulpit and forum. It was but a small beginning, 
but the men who conceived the anti-slavery enter- 
prise were not to be daunted by the vastness of 
the evil they had attacked or the sneers and op- 
probrium that were heaped upon them, but with 
firm hearts and unquailing faith they toiled on, in 
the morning sowing the seed and at evening with- 
holding not their hand. At first they used only 
the power of argument and facts, but by and by 
the time came to carry this question to the ballot- 
box and to wield its omnipotence to advance their 
cause. This was in 1840. And thence taking a 
new impulse, the movement went on, grov/ing 
little by little by small accretions as the coral 
builds its mighty reefs, till the anti-slavery senti- 
ment had permeated and filled every vein and ar- 
tery, and incorporated itself into the whole moral 
constitution of the free States. While this pro- 
cess was advancing on the one hand, the slave 
power — as if to illustrate the principle of the 



THE EDITOR. 



79 



ancients, 'whom the gods wish to destroy they first 
made mad ' — became, on the other hand, more 
and more desperate in its demand, and, by the aid 
of Northern subserviency, pushed its schemes of 
subjugation from conquest to conquest over the 
rights and equaUties of the North, till at last they 
culminated in the Nebraska act, that measure of 
stupendous wrong and perfidy. Then it was that 
all the anti-slavery seeds which twenty years of 
toil, sacrifice and patience had disseminated 
through the public mind burst out into an irre- 
pressible flame. The people had restrained these 
sentiments for a long time, in hopes that the evil 
would cease without violent remedies. They had 
endured the compromise of 1850, bitter as it w^as, 
the infamous Fugitive wSlave act, and all ; but at last 
endurance had ceased to be a virtue, and they 
could endure no longer. They could no longer 
smother the flame of liberty that was burning in 
their breasts, and that, as lite Mercuiy says, 
'arises from the deepest-rooted feelings and prin- 
ciples ' of their natures, and can never go back 
any more than the water of Niagara, that has 
once plunged over the precipice, can go back. It 
must live in the hearts it now animates. Its 
growth has been slow — twenty long years ; its de- 
cay will be equally slow. The great Republican 
party that has suddenly developed itself on the 
political theatre, embodying the anti-slavery sen- 
timent of the country as its leading characteristic, 



80 JAMES G. BLAIXE. 

when considered in its natural elements, in its his- 
tor\' and progress, or in the light of experience, 
has every appearance of permanency and pro- 
gress. 

''It does not, as The Mercury intimates, fore- 
shadow the dissolution of the Union, but its salva- 
tion. The slave States will never dissolve the 
Union. They have too great a stake in its pres- 
ervation, for the arm of the Federal government 
is absolutely necessary to keep them from insur- 
rection and massacre by the mxillions of slaves 
now oToaninof under the accursed lash. But dis- 
solution, if it ever come, must come from the free 
States, stript of their rights and degraded in the 
government, as they have been for the last twenty 
years, and goaded on to desperation by a con- 
tinuance and perpetual repetition of these aggres- 
sions. The Union will be saved by arresting the 
gigantic strides of the slave power towards politi- 
cal supremacy, dri\'ing it back into its legitimate 
sphere and restoring to the Xordi its just and 
equal rights. But that the other alternative, men- 
tioned bv TJie Mcrciirw mav not in the end result 
from the permanent dominion of the Republican 
party we are not prepared to deny ; on the con- 
trary, it is the hope of many an earnest heart, 
that beats the warmest in this glorious movement, 
that God in his wise Providence will make it the 
instrumentality of the final 'extinction of slavery' 
in this Republic. In this hope we live and labor. 



THE EDITOR. 



8i 



and will labor while we live, believing that a 
country redeemed from the shame vand curse of 
slavery, purified and restored to the Republi- 
canism of its palmy days, will be the richest legacy 
we can leave to posterity. Drive rum as a bever- 
age from all avenues of society ; place the tide of 
foreign immigration that is pouring in upon us 
with such fearful power under proper restrictions 
and in a course of education that shall prepare it, 
as the American citizen is nov\^ prepared, for the 
high functions of freedomx ; strike the fetters from 
the limb of every slave that breathes in all the vast 
domain, so that, from centre to circumference, 
only the glad shout of liberty shall be heard, and 
the smile of Providence will bless this land as it 
never has been blessed, and the tide of national 
prosperity and true glory shall roll on from 
generation to generation while time shall last/' 
A few weeks later he wrote acrain : 
It can no longer be questioned that we have 
in Maine a well-organized and powerful party, 
which shares the sympathies and influence of a 
decided majority of the people. That radical and 
permanent causes have been operating for years 
to bring about the present condition of things, is 
so well known as to need no repetition. Ignored 
and resisted, as those causes were, by selfish 
schemers, personal aims, and the force of old 
party watchwords, they increased yearly in 
breadth and strength, until they have become one 



82 JAMES G. BLAIKE. 

resistless current of public opinion, fed by the 
various springs of moral and patriotic feelings, 
which are so fresh and healthful in the social soil 
of Maine, on which the ship of State is fairly 
launched, with the flags of Temperance, Freedom 
and American enterprise waving proudly at the 
mast-head. The Republican party, therefore, is 
not the creation of a fevv^ individuals, or the result 
of tactics ; it is the production of moral ideas 
which have vegetated in the consciences and 
hearts of the people. It is pre-eminently the 
child of ideas and of the people. Strong as these 
ideas and their friends had shown themselves in 
the political efforts of the two or three years past, 
old political organizations had prevented the union 
of men of like principles in one v/ell-organized 
party. The men were called by difterent names, 
yet they had a common faith and common pur- 
poses. Their principles needed expression in a 
common platform. The people desired one 
political family and one organization. Right, ex- 
pediency and necessit}^ called for a Convention. 
What time more opportune and appropriate than 
the birthday of \\'ashington ? So ready were the 
people for action, so manifest the necessity, that 
a long notice was not required. 

The Convention of the twenty-second was 
one of the mxost remarkable and interesting that 
ever assembled in our State. The num.bers in 
attendance were very large — not less than nine 



THE EDITOR. 



83 



or ten hundred. It was composed of the true 
and influential portion of the people from all parts 
of the State. Its members came in due propor- 
tion from all the former political parties, in names 
of long-established reputation and worth, known 
in the State and out of it ; in men possessing the 
confidence and representing the convictions of 
their respective vicinities, no political assemblage 
ever held in the State surpassed the one of 
last week. No body of men could be more 
united in opinion and resolution. The enthusiasm 
manifested was not a sudden and transitory feel- 
ing, but was the result of a calm, yet intense con- 
viction that a new era had arrived in the politics 
of the State and the Nation, that hicrh and solemn 
duties are now devolving on our citizens. The 
resolutions and the speeches indicated the spirit 
and the purpose of the Republican party. The 
remarks of Edward Kent, the President of the 
Convention, on taking the chair, v/ere able, well- 
timed, and square up to the faith and determina- 
tion of a large majorit}^ of the people of the 
State, at the present time. As to the candidate 
for nomination there was but one opinion. There 
is one m.an, who by his past course, his principles 
and his devotion to them, his courage and iron- 
willed resolution at the right tim.e, has so endeared 
himself to a m.ajority of the people that the Re^ 
publicans demanded his nomination with an en- 
thusiasm which could not well be surpassed. 



84 



JAMES C, BLAINE. 



Rightfully, by popular will, is Anson P. Morrill 
to be the candidate of the Republicans next Sep- 
tember. Even against his strongest personal 
wishes, the friends of Temperance, Freedom and 
truly American ideas, would demand that he 
should be their standard-bearer. As to the prin- 
ciples of the platform, expressed by the Resolu- 
tions, we trust they will m.eet the warmest ap- 
proval of all true Republicans. They are plainly 
in consonance with our position as the people of a 
free State, with our constitutional rights and our 
relations to the Union. They recognize the laws 
of God, Liberty and Humanity, as above, yet not 
in conflict, but in harmony with the laws of the 
State and all allowable laws of the Nation. They 
demand that the people, and not the thee hundred 
and fifty thousand nobles, shall control the Gov- 
ernment of the country. They demand that the 
freedom, intelligence, moral interests, enterprise, 
labor and property of twenty millions of citizens 
shall be the controlling force of the Government, 
instead of an audacious, haughty and demoral- 
ized class who constitute less than one-sixtieth of 
the Nation. The doctrines of the Resolutions may 
strongly resemble the Whig doctrines of the 
/\merican Resolution. They may be like the 
Democratic ideas of Thomas Jefferson. They 
express the principles and the settled determina- 
tion of the Republicans of Maine, and, as we be- 
lieve, of that great and truly national party which 



THE EDITOR, 



85 



is so rapidly gathering numbers, strength and 
prestige, which is to march into power in 1856, 
and bring the Government back to the purity and 
the ideas of its founders, and thus demonstrate to 
the world that the American people have not for- 
gotten their history, are not blind to what should 
be the solution of the problem of American des- 
tiny/' 

The first National Convention of the Republi- 
can party was held in June, 1856, in the city of 
Philadelphia. Mr. Blaine was fittingly sent to it 
as a delegate from the State of Maine and he was 
chosen one of its Secretaries. The Convention 
was a heterogeneous body, comprising members 
of both the old parties and representing all shades 
of anti-slavery opinion. But it met for a single 
purpose, upon which all its members were heartily 
agreed, and to which not one of them was more 
earnestly devoted than was the brilliant young 
editor from x\ugusta. Nor was there much con- 
troversy concerning the candidate who should be 
put forward for the Presidency. William H. 
Seward, of New York, was the most conspicuous 
man there and was the undisputed leader of the 
anti-slavery Whigs. But he did not desire the 
nomination, nor did his friends desire to urge it 
upon him. He and they were agreed that it was 
best for him and for the new party that he should 
remain in the United States Senate. Salmon P. 
Chase was also a conspicuous leader of the young 



86 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



party, but neither did he desire to be its candidate 
for the Presidency at that time, preferring to fill a 
chair in the Senate. Justice McLean, of the 
Supreme Court, was mentioned as a candidate, 
especially by the older and more conservative 
element. But the majority of the Convention 
regarded him as belonging too much to the past. 
A young and energetic man, a man who belonged 
to the future, was required. Such a candidate 
was found in John Charles Fremont, an anti- 
slavery Democrat, a Senator from California, a 
gallant army officer, and a noted explorer of the 
Rocky Mountain region. He was nominated on 
the first ballot, and the ticket was completed by 
the nomination, also on the first ballot, of William 
L. Dayton for Vice-President, his principal rival 
being Abraham Lincoln. 

The work of the Convention was eminentlv 
satisfactory to the adherents of the Republican 
party throughout the Union, and its nominations 
were ratified by public mass-meetings in almost 
every city and town throughout the North. Gov- 
ernor Morrill and Mr. Blaine, the leaders of the 
Maine delegation, were greeted with such a dem- 
onstration on their return to Augusta, on Satur- 
day, June 2 1 St. At that meeting Mr. Morrill made 
the principal address. After him came Mr 
Blaine, who on that occasion made his first impor- 
tant public speech. He took his place at the 
front of the platform widi considerable trepidation. 



THE EDITOR. 



87 



But after his- first few sentences he became 
fired with enthusiasm for his subject, and for half 
an hour he spoke fearlessly and eloquently. He 
arraigned both of the old parties mercilessly for 
their attitude on the slavery question, and por- 
trayed the Republican party as the organization 
that must thenceforth dominate National politics, 
creditably solve the great issue of the day, and 
make the American Union in fact as vv^ell as in 
name a land of universal freedom. This speech 
inspired every member of the audience with the 
enthusiasm that the speaker himself so evidently 
felt, and it marked Mr. Blaine at once as a 
natural orator who was destined to be as much a 
leader of thought upon the platform as he was 
already in the editorial columns of his newspaper. 
During all that campaign Mr. Blaine was one of 
the most effective workers for the Republican 
ticket, both with pen and voice. Young as he 
was, he made himself the most conspicuous party 
leader in the State. And although, as indeed 
was expected, Fremont and Dayton were defeated, 
the Republican party was established on a perma- 
nent foundation, with a bright promise of success 
in the next National contest ; and in no State was 
its organization made more complete or more effi- 
cient than in Maine, under the guidance and inspi- 
ration of the editor of The Kennebec yoiirnal. 

At the beginning of the year 1855, Mr. Baker 
sold his share in The Ke?mebec Journal to Mr. 



88 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



John L. Stevens, with whom Mr. Blaine at once 
formed a new partnership. jNIr. Stevens assumed 
the business management of the paper and Mr. 
Blaine remained in the editorial chair. In addi- 
tion to his strictly editorial duties Mr. Blaine also 
undertook to report the proceedings of the State 
Senate for the paper, and in that difficult task was 
eminently successful. He showed himself a per- 
fect master of all the details of Legislative work 
in every department, and gave to his readers a 
lucid and comprehensive account of everything of 
importance that was done. At the same time he 
maintained the full vio^or of his editorial wrldn^-s, 
as may be seen from the following, which was 
printed in February, 1855, on the re-election of 
Mr. Seward as United States Senator from New 
York : 

The prayer of the freeman is answered. A 
question of the highest importance, the right de- 
cision of which for months has excited the deep- 
est solicitude, has been solved to the joy of pa- 
triotic Americans and for the welfare of the 
public. By the force of his own character as a 
man and a statesman, and of the moral and 
political principles which he represented and in 
him centred, William H. Seward has been re- 
elected to the American Senate by the State 
which in her earlier days gave the Nation a Clin- 
ton, a Livingston, a Jay, a Hamilton, and which now 
with her population, her resources and strength 



THE EDITOR, 



89 



increased twenty-fold, bears up in her arms 
freedom's great leader against traitors at home 
and storms of relentless opposition from abroad. 
The heart of the nation throbs at the event which, 
amid exultation and congratulations, lia-htnino^ and 
steam are announcing to the true men of this 
whole continent and of the civilized world. The 
contest through which he has passed is without 
parallel in the history of this country. We have 
waited until the clouds of the conflict were passing 
away and the cannon of rejoicing had ceased, to 
express our exultant gratitude at the event to w^hich 
we have looked forward with the strongest hope 
and in regard to which, for a brief hour, w^e had 
fears. It was our fortune to be in New York city 
last October w^hen the Union Convention had its 
session. Mingling quietly with the throngs that 
crowded the hotels from all parts of the Empire 
State, we learned much of the real purpose of 
the men w^ho controlled the deliberations and 
plans of that Convention. We became satisfied 
that the guiding purpose of the combinations there 
made w^as not love for American principles, not 
reform in the naturalization laws, but the defeat 
of Myron H. Clark, and through that result the 
political annihilation of William H. Seward. 
Hards, Softs and Silver Grays joined hands, with 
nothing else to unite them but indifference to 
freedom and a common hatred of its leading 
champion. We saw that the influence of tens of 



go 



JAMES G, BLAINE. 



thousands of good men was to be converted to 
uses foreign to true American principles, and, if 
successful, disastrous to the position which New 
York holds among her sister States, in respect 
to that great issue now before us, whether free- 
dom or slavery shall rule the destiny of this 
nation. 

Reviewing the field, we saw that nothing but 
Mr. Seward's naked strength and the devotion of 
the p^eople of the Empire State to him and to his 
principles could rescue him from the combined 
array against him. We watched the contest with 
the deepest solicitude. Four months have passed. 
The coalition of wickedness culminated. The bat- 
tle is over. The great American statesman is 
unscathed, and now occupies a prouder elevation 
before his countrymen than ever before, and a 
serener and broader future is his secure. Never 
since the establishment of the Repubhc has there 
been a greater necessity for a leading statesman 
of far-seeing vision, of heroic, unyielding will, of 
courage that no threat or danger can blanch, 
of genius to organize and guide. God's neces- 
sity in the affairs of men is always realized in his- 
tory. We trust the friends of Mr. Seward will 
not misunderstand the cause and the meaning of 
his triumph. His election is not the success or the 
defeat of the old political organizations. His bit- 
terest and ablest foes are amone those who claim 
to belong to the party with which he labored from 



THE EDITOR, 



93 



its formation to the hour of its final overthrow. 
Many of his ablest and most devoted friends and 
supporters have belonged to the Democratic 
party. In reality his election has been secured 
by that party which has been gathering numbers 
and strength from all former organizations, 
which has arisen a young giant, soon to be the 
Hercules to drive the monsters from the national 
capital and trample under its feet the serpents 
and vipers which have alarmed and bitten the 
sons of Hberty and poisoned and checked the 
growth of the best plants of American civiliza- 
tion. Not as the champion of an effete and a 
rapidly dissolving party, but as a great statesman 
and sworn defender of freedom and the Union, 
he finds congenial fellovv^ship with Chase, Sum- 
mer, Wade, Fessenden, Hamlin, King, Johnson, 
Wilson, Strong, Hall, Durkee and that whole 
school of vigorous and determined men of com- 
mon blood and aim, who are by the will of God 
and the people to make it historical fact, ere i860, 
that slavery is sectional and temporary, that free- 
dom is national and universal, and that American 
principles shall rule to the exclusion of ideas and 
elements which had their birth amid the feudal 
institutions and the despotism of the old world.'' 
The caustic quality of the same pen is strik- 
ingly observable in an editorial published a month 
later on the adjournment of the Thirty-third Con- 
gress. That body had been dominated by the 

6 



94 



JAMES G. BLAIXE. 



pro-slavery element, and had committed many 
acts that were most repugnant to public sentiment 
throughout the free States. Of it and of its re- 
cord, and of the prospects for the future, Mr. 
Blaine wrote : 

The first days of March have been auspicious 
not alone as indicating a pleasant spring and a 
favorable season for the husbandman, but they 
came loaded with providential ble96ings to the 
American people in that they give riddance to 
that bodv of men v/hom, bv the necessities of the 
case, we must denominate the Thirty-third Con- 
gress of the United States. It is an event that 
should o'ive the nation mina-led feelings of shame 
and rejoicing — shame that the free suffrages of 
the people should have elected to high and sol- 
emn trusts men so wanting in right qualification, 
true patriotism and elevated characters as a ma- 
jority of that body has shov>-n itself — rejoicing 
that it is bevond their power lono-er to diso^^race the 
capitol by their corruptions, their reckless auda- 
city, and their conspiracies against liberty and 
the broadest and best interests of the Union. If 
the people of England had reason for joy when 
Oliver Cromvv'ell drove the rump Parliament out 
of doors and told its memxbers to begone to their 
homes, how much more should the citizens of free 
America manifest their pleasure that time in its 
long-suffering mercy had put an end to the power 
of the men who have violated solemn compacts, 



THE EDITOR. 



95 



struck down the sacred landmarks established by 
the fathers of the Republic, and committed the 
government of the country to the principles and 
policy of a depotism worthy of Rome in her dark- 
est days. A Congress that passed the Kansas 
and Nebraska bill, and gave so many proofs of a 
want of elevated patriotism as the one just termi- 
nated, would have been ready to elect a monarch 
or surrender the Republic for an empire, if sur- 
rounded by circumstances and pressed by events 
favoring the exchange. How much of infamy be- 
longs to the existing National /Administration we 
need not now affirm^ Enough and dark as nieht 
is the part for which God and history will hold it 
responsible. Two long years more we must en- 
dure its power and its debasement, though it may 
be hoped that a righteous discipline and the nerve 
and high resolves of the new Republican House 
of Representatives may keep it from going fur- 
ther down those deeps to which its present ani- 
mus and impetus would carry it. But our remarks 
now^ respect the termination of the Thirty-third 
Congress. Only of that can we say our sorrows 
are past. How many and deep these sorrow^s — 
how much the nation has lost by the littleness and 
want of political justice and true statesmanship on 
the part of the controlling majority of the Con- 
gress just closed, posterity and the future histo- 
rian alone can tell. Sufficient unto the day is the 
evil thereof Our hope for the future is that the 



g6 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

evil will cure itselt that the wickedness has cul- 
minated, and the reaciion is fast bringing the con- 
trol of the nation into purer and stronger hands. 
Did we not so hope, we should regard the days 
of the Republic numbered. For such utter defi- 
ance of the laws of humanity : such prostitution 
of solemn trust and opportunities ; such open and 
unblushino- violations of the soirit and intent of 
our American institutions, unless arrested by the 
might of the people's will and the strong arms of 
patriotic statesmen, must end in the nation's night 
and desolation. In speaking as we have of the 
majority of Congress just passed from power, of 
course Vv'e design no reflection on those true men 
Vvho have stood up manfully against threats and 
bribes in the defence of the Constitution and the 
laws ; sacred enorao-ements and the assaulted and 

<_> o 

scouted principles of liberty and humanity, on 
which the Republic is based, and in love of v,-i::ca 
only it can endure. All praise to that noble hand 
vvhose names we need not call. The nation will 
remember them. An approving constituency 
will receive them wai-mly to their homes and 
give them the meed of approbation for labors 
well performed and solemn trusts faithfully 
held." 

At about the same time he wrote as follows of 
the troubles in Kansas, for which that same 
Thirty-third Congress had been chiefly respon- 
sible : 



THE EDITOR. 



97 



'* The opening spring and coming summer will 
be important and exciting eras in the history of 
Kansas Territory, and will probably witness the 
close of the struggle which is to consign that fine 
land to the curse of human slavery or dedicate it 
forever lo freedom. The newspapers estabHshed 
at different points in the territory are already 
waging war fiercely — the free press battling man- 
fully for the rights of humanity, and the slave 
press as earnestly, if not as ably and honestly, 
working for the introduction and permanent en- 
graftment of the ' peculiar institution.' The pro- 
slavery party are very bitter against Governor 
Reeder. They cannot forgive him for showing 
the impulses of an honest heart and the courage 
of a bold one, in the stand he took in regard to 
the frauds practised in the election of congress- 
ional delegate last fall. They find to their sore 
discomfiture, that in the Governor they have 
' caught a tartar ' when they were least looking 
for one. Identified, as Reeder ahvays w^as in 
Pennsylvania, with the hardest of the hard-shell 
Democrats, and appointed to his present place at 
the solicitation and by the influence of Senator 
Broadhead, who voted in favor of the Nebraska 
bill, the Southern party thought they had secured 
the game in their own hands, when such a man 
was selected for Governor. Such also we know 
was the prevalent belief in Pennsylvania at tho 
time of Reeder s appointment. The more credit. 



98 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



therefore, is due to him for breaking away from 
the corrupt influences which pressed upon him 
and coming out boldly in favor of freedom. 

Atchison, who is the recognized leader of the 
pro-slavery forces, is again in the territory at- 
tending to the spring elections, and using all his 
efforts to have them carrie j, as they were in the 
past autumn, by the imported desperadoes of 
Missouri. As an offset to these adverse forces, 
we have encourag-ino" accounts of the success of 
the emigration societies, who have great hopes of 
throwing into the territory, during the approach- 
ing summer, a sufficient number of earnest 
Northern freemen to counterbalance all the cor- 
rupt influence of the Missouri frontiersmen, and 
to outvote them at the election in the fall. A 
party of seventy-six left Boston on the 6th inst., 
and are already in the territory. A much larger 
party, though we do not know the exact number, 
was to have left on Tuesday, to be followed by a 
third on Friday. These emigrants will meet large 
numbers from the States of Nev/ York, Pennsyl- 
vania and Ohio, v.^ho will reach the territory even 
in advance of them, and unite cordially with them 
in their labors in behalf of freedom. These 
emigration societies form the strong lever , with 
which the North must work to keep the slave 
power from our territories. They deserve at our 
hands aid and encouragement — not that we would 
advise any one to leave our own good State or a 



THE EDITOR. 



99 



comfortable home and prosperous business else- 
where, but merely to direct those who are already 
seeking a location in the far West, to the fertile 
plains of Kansas, where, with unexcelled oppor- 
tunities for improving their personal condition, 
they will find also the largest field for benefiting 
their fellow-men by assisting in the foundation of 
a great and free State." 

In the summer of 1858, Mr. Blaine retired from 
the editorship of T/ie Keiiiiebec journal, and re- 
moved for a short time from Augusta to Portland, 
where he became the editor of The Poj^tland Ad- 
vertise7% an important and influential paper. Here 
his work was characterized by the same features 
that had marked it at Augusta, and he showed 
himself possessed of all the qualities that go to 
make up a successful journalist. His remarkable 
memory of facts, figures, names and places was 
of immense service to him ; so were his quickness 
and accuracy of judgment ; so were his earnest- 
ness and enthusiasm ; so were his courage, his 
fair-mindedness, and the aeeressive spirit that 
made him such a successful leader of his own 
party and such a terror to his foes. 

The days of his life in the sanctum were, how- 
ever, numbered. The people of Augusta were 
too strongly attached to him to allow him to re- 
main long at Portland. If they could not have 
him among them as an editor, they v;hould have 
him as a legislator. Accordingly, in September, 



lOO 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



1858, they elected him as their representative in 
the State Legislature ; and they re-elected him 
again in 1859 and i860 ; so that he served in the 
three Legislatures of 1859, i860, 1861, in the last 
two being Speaker of the House of Representa- 
tives. The same qualities which had given him 
success as a teacher, and as an editor, also gave 
him success as a legislator. He showed himself 
a master of Parliamentary law, a close student of 
public affairs, an unerring judge of men and 
of measures, an eloquent orator, and an irresist- 
ible debater. As the presiding officer of the 
House, he was eminently dignified, impartial and 
authoritative. He never hesitated in making his 
decisions on points of order, and the justness of 
them was seldom disputed. When he retired 
from the State capitol to enter the more import- 
ant field offered by the National Legislature, he 
carried with him the respect and the good wishes 
of all his associates. 



CHAPTER V. 



REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. 

Some of His Colleagues in His First Term — Relations with President 
Lincoln — Speeches on the Draft, the Enrolment, and Other Topics — 
Defence of the State of Maine — Opposition to the Greenback Craze — 
Three Terms in the Speakership — A Lively Controversy with General 
Butler — The Salary Grab — Leader of the Minority — A Strong Declara- 
tion of Political Principles — Close of His Career as a Representative. 

It is not a good thing/' said Abraham Lincoln, 
''to swap horses while crossing a stream/' The 
observation is as truthful as it is simxple, and as im- 
portant as it is homely. Its original application was 
to the Chief Executive, and to the general policy of 
the Administration. But it might have been ap- 
plied with equal fitness, and indeed was in great 
measure tacitly applied, to leadership in the Na- 
tional Legislature. During the War of the Rebel- 
lion, the Republican party dominated all branches 
of the Government. It had elected its Presidential 
candidate, Abraham Lincoln, in i860. It had also 
elected a majority of each House of Congress, a 
majority that was greatly strengthened by the 
resignation and departure of the disloyal mem- 
bers from the seceding States. These Republican 
Senators and Representatives included, naturally, 
many who w^ere new to public life ; and other new 
recruits were returned at the elections of 1862. 



lOI 



102 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



They included, however, a considerable number 
of experienced men, who, as members of one or 
the other of the old parties, had for years been 
eminent in the public service. These latter were 
in oiffice both before and at the outbreak of the 
war; they were responsible for the policy of the 
dominant party, and for the attitude it had as- 
sumed and had caused the Government to assume 
toward the insurgents ; and it w^as, therefore, most 
wise and fitting that they should retain the leader- 
ship until the restoration of peace, and that their 
younger colleagues, no matter how great their 
ability, should be content for the time to follow 
them, rather than strive for the supreme 
command. 

Thus it came to pass that Mr. Blaine, who was 
elected in 1862, and in 1863 took his seat as a 
Representative in the Thirty-eighth Congress, did 
not at once spring into that prominence for which 
his genius amply fitted him. The files of The 
Congressional Globe, for that Congress and the 
succeedino^ Conorress, contain few speeches made 
by him ; and the few that he did make v\^ere brief, 
though always pointed and effective. Yet it was 
evident to the careful observer that he was stand- 
ing for a time in the background only through 
personal choice, and that presently, when he 
deemed the occasion propitious, he would easily 
step at once into the foremost ranks of contem- 
porary statesmen. 



REPRESENTA TIVE IN CONGRESS. 



103 



In 1 862, the affairs of the Nation were in a most 
critical condition, and loyal men everywhere 
throughout the country saw that it was necessary 
to send only the ablest and staunchest patriots to 
Washinorton to conduct the affairs of the Govern- 

o 

ment. i\ccordingly, the Republicans of the 
Kennebec district of Maine unanimously selected 
Mr. Blaine as their candidate for Congress. It 
was largely owing to his own leadership that that 
district, and indeed the entire State, had been 
made overwhelmingly Republican, and it was, 
therefore, only a fitting recognition of his services 
that he was elected by a majority of 3,422. 
Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania, was then the 
unchallenged leader of the House, and among 
Mr. Blaine's colleagues were Roscoe Conkling, 
Schuyler Colfax, James F. Wilson, William B. 
Allison, James A. Garfield, Samuel J. Randall, 
William D. Kelley, Elihu B. Washburne, Owen 
Lovejoy, George W. Julian, Godlove S. Orth, John 
A. Kasson, Henry L. Dawes, William Windom, 
Alexander H. Rice, Frank P. Blair, Jr., Erastus 
Corning, James Brooks, Robert C. Schenck, 
Reuben E. Fenton, George H. Pendleton, Francis 
Kernan, G. W. Scofield, and many others who 
have since been eminent in the councils of the 
Nation. 

During his first term in Congress, Mr. Blaine 
was a member of four committees, those on Rules, 
Appropriations, Military Affairs, and the Post- 



104 



/AMES G. BLAINE\ 



Office, and he quickly won a reputation as an ex- 
ceedingly careful and industrious committeeman. 
He paid close attention to the practical work of 
framinor legislation in the committee-rooms, and 
in debate on the floor of the House proved him- 
self a worthy compeer of his associates. His first 
important speech was on the subject of the as- 
sumption by the General Government of the war 
debts of the States. He took the cr^'ound that 
the North was abundantly able to prosecute the 
war to a- successful issue, and so highly esteemed 
w^as this speech that 200,000 copies of it were 
circulated in 1864. as a camnaiorn document. Re- 
ferring to the same speech, Tliaddeus Stevens 
said that during his own period of service at 
Washinorton, no man had come to Congress 
showing, in his opinion, as great ability for the 
higher walks of public life as James G. Blaine. 

The young representative from ]\Iaine was of 
course an earnest supporter of the Administra- 
tion, and was a strong advocate of the renomina- 
tion of President Lincoln. In respect to his re- 
lations v/ith the President, Mr. Ward H. Lamon, 
w^ho was Marshal of the District of Columbia and 
on terms of especial intimacy with Mr. Lincoln, 
makes the followino- statement : 

I knew those who were Mr. Lincoln's friends 
and those who were plotting against him, and I 
am sure that there v\^as no one amono- the vounorer 
members of Concrress on more intimate, cordial 

o 



REPRESENTA TIVE IN CONGRESS. 



and confidential terms Vvith him than Mr. Blaine, 
nor was there any one more implicitly trusted by 
Mr. Lincoln. When the movement was made 
against Mr. Lincoln in the winter preceding the 
campaign of 1864, Mr. Blaine was the person 
with whom Mr. Lincoln constantly conferred 
about Maine, and I was present at a conference 
between the two when Mr. Lincoln requested 
Mr. Blaine to proceed to Maine and see if there 
was any adverse movement there. Mr. Lincoln 
became acquainted with Mr. Blaine in Illinois 
during his memorable campaign with Douglas in 
1858. Mr. Blaine was corresponding from the 
scene of contest with his paper in Maine, and in 
one of his letters he predicted that Lincoln would 
be defeated for Senator by Douglas, but would 
beat Douglas for President in i860. This letter 
was copied in several Illinois papers, and Mr. 
Lincoln cut it out and carried it in his small 
mem.orandum book until long after he Vv^as inau- 
gurated as President. It naturally laid the founda- 
tion for cordial friendship between the two/' 

A few extracts from Mr. Blaine's remarks in 
Congress during 1863 and 1864 will show his 
patriotic attitude towards the great question of 
the day. Regarding the draft of troops, for ex- 
ample, while he recognized the necessity of the 
thing and supported the Government in its efforts 
to bring the army up to the necessary size, he 
deprecated the unnecessarily harsh provisions 



io6 



""AMES G. BLAINE, 



advocated by some of his more extreme col- 
leagues, speaking on the subject as follows : 

''A conscription is a hard thing at best, Mr. 
Speaker, but the people of this country are patrioti- 
cally wiUing to submit to one in this great crisis 
for the great cause at stake. There is no neces- 
sity, however, for making it absolutely merciless 
and sv\^eeping. I say, in my judgm.ent, there is 
no necessity for making it so, even if there were 
no antecedent questions as to the expediency and 
practicability of the measure. I believe the law 
as it stands, allowing commutation and substitu- 
tion, is sufficiently effective, if judiciously enforced. 
It will raise a large number of men by its direct 
operation, and it will secure a very large amount 
of money with which to pay bounties to volunteers. 

/'I cannot refrain from asking gentlemen 
around me \yhether in their judgment the pending 
measure, if submitted to the popular vote, would 
receive the support of even a respectable minority 
in any district in the loyal States ? just let it be 
understood that whoever the lot falls on must go, 
regardless of all business considerations, all 
private interests, all personal engagements, all 
family obligations ; that the draft is to be sharp, 
decisive, final and inexorable, without commuta- 
tion and without substitution, and mv word for it 
you Vv^ill create consternation in all the loyal 
States. Such a conscription was never resorted 
to but once, even in the French Empire under the 



REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS, 1 07 

absolutism of the first Napoleon, and for the Con- 
gress of the United States to attempt its enforce- 
ment upon their constituents is to ignore the first 
principles of Republican and Representative 
Government." 

On an occasion near the close of the war, in a 
speech on the Enrolment Bill, in February, 1865, 
he spoke as follows in behalf of the soldiers in the 
field : 

^'Nothinof so discouracres and disheartens the 
brave men at the front as the belief that proper 
measures are not adopted at home for re-enforcing 
and sustaininor them. Even a lukewarmness or 
a backwardness in that respect is enough; but 
when you add to that the suspicion that unfair 
devices have been resorted to by those charged 
with filling quotas, you naturally influence the 
prejudices and passions of our veterans in the 
field, in a manner calculated to lessen their per- 
sonal zeal, and generally to weaken the discipline 
of the army. After four years of such patriotic 
and heroic effort for National unity as the world 
has never witnessed before, we cannot now afford 
to have the great cause injured, or its fair fame 
darkened by a single unworthy incident connected 
with it. The improper practices of individuals 
cannot disgrace or degrade the Nation ; but after 
these practices are brought to the attention of 
Congress, we shall assuredly be disgraced and 
degraded if we fail to apply the requisite remedy 



io8 



JAMES G, BLAINE. 



when that remedy is in our power. Let us, then, 
in this hour of triumph to the National arms, do 
our duty here, our duty to the troops in the field, 
our duty to our constituents at home, and our 
duty, above all, to our country, whose existence 
has been in such peril in the past, but whose 
future of greatness and glory seems now so as- 
sured and so radiant." 

The following extract is from a speech on the 
duties of the Federal Government toward the 
Unionists in the rebel States : 

*'Among the most solemn duties of a sovereign 
government is the protection of those citizens 
who, under great temptations and amid great 
perils, mxaintain their faith and their loyalty. The 
obligation on the Federal Government to protect 
the loyalists of the South is supremie, and they 
must take all needful means to assure that pro- 
tection. Amonof the most needful is the ofift of 
free suffrage, and that must be guaranteed. 
There is no protection you can extend to a man 
so effective and conclusive as the power to protect 
himself. And in assuring protection to the loyal 
citizen, you assure permanency to the govern- 
ment, so that the bestowal of suffrage is not 
merely the discharge of a personal obligation 
toward those who are enfranchised, but it is the 
most far-sighted provision against social disorder, 
the surest guarantee for peace, prosperity and 
public justice." 



tn 

O 
P 
< 

O 

I— I 

m 

< 



< 



REPRESENTA TIVE IN CONGRESS, I I I 



In one of the political controversies that marked 
the proceedings of Congress in the summer of 
1864, the Hon. S. S. Cox, then of Ohio, but after- 
ward of New York, made some remarks criticising 
the State of Maine. Mr. Blaine considered them 
most unjust, and quickly rose to the defence of 
his adopted home. In the course of his reply to 
Mr. Cox he said : 

''If there be a State in this Union that can say 
with truth that her federal connection confers no 
special benefit of a material character, that State 
is Maine, and yet, sir, no State is more attached 
to the Federal Union than Maine. Her affection 
and her pride are centred in the Union, and God 
knows she has contributed of her best blood and 
treasure without stint in supporting the war for 
the Union, and she will do so to the end. But 
she resents, and I, speaking for her, resent the 
insinuation that she derives any undue advantage 
from Federal legislation, or that she gets a single 
dollar that she does not pay back, h: ^j: j have 
spoken in vindication of a State that is as indepen- 
dent and as proud as any within the limits of the 
Union. I have spoken for a people as high-toned 
and as honorable as can be found in the wide world 
— many of them my constituents, who are as many 
and as brave as ever faced the ocean's storms. So 
long, sir, as I have a seat on this floor, the State 
of Maine shall not be slandered by the gentleman 
from Ohio, or by gentlemen from any other State.'* 

7 



112 



JAMES G, BLAIXE. 



At another time, another attack was made upon 
the State of Maine, in the Senate as well as in the 
House, during a debate on the bill granting 
boundes to the fisheries. On this occasion Mr. 
Blaine said : 

i^reat deal has been said recently in the 
other end of the capitol in regard to the fishing 
bounties, a portion of which is paid to Maine. I 
have a word to say on that matter, and I may as 
well say it here. According to the records of 
the Navy .Department, the State of Maine has 
sent into the naval service since the beginning of 
this war, six thousand skilled seamen, to sav 
nothing of the trained and invaluable ofticers she 
has contributed to the same sphere of patriotic 
duty. For these men the State has received no 
credit whatever on her quotas for the army. If 
you will calculate the amount of bounty that 
would have been paid to that number of men had 
they enlisted in the army instead of entering the 
navv, as thev did without bountv, vou will find 
that it will foot up a larger sum than [Maine has 
received in fishing bounties for the past twenty 
years. Thus, sir, the original proposition on 
which fishing bounties were granted — that they 
w^ould build up a hardy and skilled class of 
mariners for the public defence in time of public 
danger — has been made good a hundred and a 
thousand-fold by the experience and the develop- 
ments of this war." 



REPRESENTA TIVE IN CONGRESS. 1 1 3 

In the fall of 1864, Mr. Blaine was elected for 
a second term in Congress by a majority of 
4,328. During this Thirty-ninth Congress he was 
a member of several important committees and 
took a more active and conspicuous part in the 
business of the House than during his first term. 
Reconstruction of the Southern States came for- 
ward as a leading topic of legislation, and in 
consideration and discussion of it he played an 
important part. Early in January, 1866, he intro- 
duced a resolution on the subject of Congres- 
sional representation, which afterward became the 
basis of that part of the Fourteenth Amendment 
to the Constitution bearing upon that subjec 
Before that time, the tendency had been to apoo 
don Representatives according to the number c 
actual voters. The change proposed and largely 
ichieved by Mr. Blaine, based the apportionment 
of Representatives and direct taxes upon the 
\\ riole number of persons in each State, excluding 
Indians not taxed. 

Mr. Bla me s services at Washington more and 
more commended him to the confidence of his 
constituents in Maine ; and in the fall of 1866, he 
was elected for a third term by the great majority 
of 6,591. In the Fortieth Congress, which he thus 
entered in the fall of 1867, he was a very cons[)icu^ 
ous figure, and was occasionally c ailed to occU" 
py temporarily the Speaker's chair. Said an 
observant newspaper writer at this time : " ?ar. 



114 



JAMES G. BLAIXE. 



Blaine is metallic ; yvou cannot conceive how a 
shot should pierce him, for there seem no joints 
in his harness. He is a man who knows what . 
the weather was yesterday morning in Dakota, 
what the Emperor's policy will be touching 
Mexico, on \vhat day of the week the i6th of 
December proximo will fall, who is chairman of 
the School Committee in Kennebunk, what is the 
best way of managing the National Debt, together 
with all the other interests of to-day, which any- 
body else would stagger under. How he does 
it, nobody knows. He is always in his place. 
He mmst absorb details by assimilation at his 
finger ends. As I said, he is clear metal. His 
features are made in a mould ; his attitudes are . 
those of a bronze figure ; his voice clinks ; and 
he has ideas fixed as brass.'' 

At the very opening of this Congress, ques- 
tions of national finance became prominent. Mr. 
Pendleton, of Ohio, proposed the payment of the 
national bonds in greenbacks, thus beginning 
what afterwards became the ''greenback craze." 
Mr. Blaine promptly took the floor in opposition 
to this financial heresy, making the following 
statesmanlike declaration of principles in favor of 
upholding inflexibly the public credit and the 
national faith : 

''The remedy for our financial troubles, Mr. 
Chairman, will not be found in a superabundance 
of depreciated paper currency. It lies in the 



REPRESEXTA TIVE IN CONGRESS. 



Opposite direction ; and the sooner the Nation finds 
itself on a specie basis, the sooner will the public 
Treasury be free from embarrassment, and private 
business relieved from discouragement. Instead, 
therefore, of entering upon a reckless and bound- 
less issue of legal tenders, with their consequent 
depression, if not destruction of value, let us set 
resolutely to work and make those already in cir- 
culation equal to so many gold dollars. When 
that result shall be accomplished, we can proceed 
to pay our five-twenties either in coin or paper, 
for the one would be the equivalent of the other. 
But to proceed deliberately on a scheme of de- 
preciating our legal tenders, and then forcing the 
holders of Government bonds to accept them in 
payment, would resemble in point of honor the 
policy of a merchant who, with abundant resources 
and prosperous business, should devise a plan for 
throwing discredit on his own notes with the view 
of having them bought up at a discount ruinous 
to the holders and Immensely profitable to his own 
knavish pocket. This comparison may faintly 
illustrate the wrongfulness of the policy, but not 
its consummate folly ; for in the case of the Gov- 
ernment, unlike the merchant, the stern necessity 
would recur of making good in the end, by the 
payment of hard coin, all the discount that might 
be gained by the temporary substitution of paper. 

Discarding all such schemes as at once un- 
worthy and unprofitable, let us direct our policy 



Il6 JAMES G, BLAINE. 

steadily, but not rashly, toward the resumption of 
specie payment. And when we have attained 
^hat end — easily attainable at no distant day if the 
proper policy be pursued — we can all unite on 
some honorable plan for the redemption of the 
five-twenty bonds, and the issuing instead thereof 
a new series of bonds which can be more favor- 
ably placed at a lower rate of interest. When 
we shall have reached the specie basis, the value 
of the United States securities will be so high in 
^he money markets of the world, that we can 
c()mmand our own terms. We can then call in 
Crr five-twenties according to the very letter and 
vpirit of the bond, and adjust a new loan that will 
eagerly sought for by capitalists, and will be 
(*ee from those elements of discontent, that in 
some measure surround the existing funded debt 
of the country/' 

When the political treason of President John- 
son precipitated a bitter conflict between him and 
Congress, Mr. Blaine stood with his party against 
the Administration, and favored the impeachment 
of the President. He was a cordial supporter 
of the Republican National Ticket in 1868, and 
after its election made, on December 10, 1868, in 
the House of Representatives, the following 
prophecy and pledge of loyalty to the incoming 
Executive : 

General Grant's Administration will have high 
vanta;,(e ground from the day of its inauguration. 



REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. 11 7 



Its responsibilities will indeed be great, its power 
will be large, its opportunities will be splendid ; 
and to meet them all we have a tried and true 
man, who adds to his other great elements of 
strength that of perfect trust and confidence on 
the part of the people. And to reassure ourselves 
of his executive character, if reassurance were 
necessary, let us remember that great military 
leaders have uniformly proved the wisest, firmest 
and best of civil rulers. Cromwell, William III., 
Charles XII., Frederick of Prussia, are not more 
conspicuous instances in monarchical governments 
than Washington, Jackson and Taylor have proved 
in our own. Whatever, therefore, may lie before 
us in the untrodden and often beclouded path of 
the future — -whether it be financial embarrassment 
or domestic trouble of another and more serious 
type, or misunderstandings with foreign nations, 
or the extension of our flag and our sovereignty 
over insular or continental possessions. North or 
South, that fate or fortune may peacefully offer to 
our ambition — let us believe with all confidence 
that General Grant's Administration will meet 
every exigency, with the courage, the ability and 
the conscience which American nationality and 
Christian civilization demand.'' 

Mr. Blaine's election to a fourth term in Con- 
gress, in 1868, was a matter of course and was 
effected by a majority of 3,346. When the new 
House was organized on March 4, 1869, he was 



Il8 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

the unanimous choice of the Republican members 
for the Speakership and was promptly elected to 
it by 135 votes against 57 for the Hon. Michael C. 
Kerr, of Indiana, the Democratic candidate. Mr. 
Blaine was at that time only thirty-nine years old. 
But he had already shown himself the possessor 
of those qualities of dignity, firmness, fairness, 
readiness of decision, and complete knowledge of 
parliamentary law and practice essential for the 
correct performances of the duties of that respon- 
sible and exalted office. On taking the chair he 
addressed his colleagues in the foUowInof terms : 
I thank you profoundly for the great honor 
which yeu have just conferred upon me. The 
gratification which this signal mark of your confi- 
dence brings to me finds its only drawback in the 
dittidence with which I assume the weighty duties 
devolved upon me. "Succeeding to a chair made 
illustrious by the services of such eminent states- 
men and skilled parliamentarians as Clay and 
Stevenson, and Polk, and WInthrop, and Banks, 
and Grow, and Colfax, I may well distrust my 
ability to meet the just expectations of those who 
have shown me such marked partiality. But relying, 
gentlemen, on my honest purpose to perform all 
my duties faithfully and fearlessly, and trusting in a 
large measure to the indulgence which I am sure 
you will always extend to me, I shall hope to re- 
tain, as I have secured, your confidence, your 
kindly regard and your generous support. 



REPRESENTA TIVE IN CONGRESS. 1 I ^ 



''The Forty-first Congress assembles at an aus- 
picious period in the history of our government. 
The splendid and impressive ceremonial which 
we have just witnessed in another part of the capi- 
ol, appropriately symbolizes the triumphs of the 
past and the hopes of the future. A great chief- 
tain, whose sword, at the head of gallant and vic- 
torious armies, saved the Republic from dismem- 
berment and ruin, has been fitly called to the 
highest civic honor which a grateful people can 
bestow. Sustained by a Congress that so ably 
represents the loyalty, the patriotism and the 
personal worth of the nation, the President this 
day inaugurated will assure to the country an 
administration of purity, fidelity and prosperity ; 
an era of liberty regulated by law, and of law 
thoroughly inspired with liberty. 

''Congratulating you, gentlemen, upon the 
happy auguries of the day, and invoking the 
gracious blessing of Almighty God on the ardu- 
ous and responsible labors before you, I am now 
ready to take the oath of office, and enter upon 
the discliarge of the duties to which you have 
called me.'' 

His performances of the duties of the Speaker- 
ship amply justified the expectations and the 
confidence of those who elected him to the ofiice. 
It was a pertod when political feeling ran high and 
when the post of presiding officer was a difficult 
one to fillo Mr. Blaine succeeded in g^ivino 



120 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



entire satisfaction to his own party, and at the 
same time in giving the opposition minority no 
cause to complain. At the end of his two years of 
service, his old opponent, Mr. Cox, who had now 
become a representative from New York, offered 
the following resolution: ''In view of the diffi- 
culties involved in the performance of the duties 
of the presiding officer of this House, and of the 
able, courteous, dignified and impartial discharge 
of those duties by the Hon. J. G. Blaine, during 
the present Congress, it is eminently becoming 
that our thanks be, and they hereby are tendered 
to the Speaker thereof In reply, Mr. Blaine 
said : 

Our labors are at an end ; but I delay the final 
adjournment long enough to return my most pro- 
found and respectful thanks for the commendation 
which you have been pleased to bestow upon my 
official course and conduct. 

''In a deliberative body of this character, a 
presiding officer is fortunate if he retains the 
confidence and steady support of his political 
associates. Beyond that, you give me the assur- 
ance that I have earned the respect and good-will 
of those from whom I am separated by party lines. 
Your expressions are most grateful to me, and are 
most gratefully acknowledged. 

"The Congress whose existence closes with 
this hour enjoys a memorable distinction. It is the 
first in which all the States have been represented 



REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. 



on this floor since the baleful winter that pre- 
ceded our late bloody war. Ten years have 
passed since then — years of trial and triumph ; 
years of wild destruction and years of careful re 
building ; and after all, and as to the result of all. 
the National Government is here to-day, united, 
strong, proud, defiant and just, with a territorial 
area vastly expanded, and with three additional 
States represented on the folds of its flag. For 
these prosperous fruits of our great struggle, let 
us humbly give thanks to the God of battles and 
to the Prince of Peace. 

"And now, gentlemen, with one more expres- 
sion of the obligation I feel for the considerate 
kindness with which you have always sustained me, 
I perform the only remaining duty of my office in 
declaring, as I now do, that the House of Repre- 
sentatives of the Forty-first Congress is adjourned 
without day." 

The election of 1870 sent Mr. Blaine to the 
Flouse for a fifth term by a majority of 2,320, and 
he was again made Speaker by the unanimou:-* 
vote of his party associates. He received i2f 
votes against 92 passed for George W. Morgan 
the Democratic candidate. His words on taking 
the chair were as follows : 

''The Speakership of the American House of 
Representatives has always been esteemed as an 
enviable honor. A re-election to the position 
carries with it peculiar gratification, in that it 



122 



JAMES G. BLAIXE. 



implies an approve?.! of past official bearing". For 
this great mark of your confidence I can but re- 
turn to you my sincerest thanks, with the assur- 
ance of my utmost devotion to the duties vdiich 
you call upon me to discharge. 

" Chosen by the party representing the polidcal 
majority in this House, the Speaker owes a faith- 
ful allegiance to the principles and policy of that 
party. But he will fall far below the honorable 
requirements of his station if he fails to give to 
the minority their full rights under the rules which 
he is called upon to administer. The successful 
working of our grand system of government 
depends largely upon the vigilance of party 
organizations, and the most wholesome legislation 
which this House produces and perfects is that 
which results from opposing forces mutually 
eager and watchful and well-nigh balanced in 
numbers. 

''The Forty-second Congress assembles at a 
period of general content, happiness and pros- 
perity throughout the land. Under the wise 
administration of the National Governmient peace 
reigns in all our borders, and the only serious 
misunderstanding with any foreign pov/er is, we 
may hope, at this moment in process of honor- 
able, cordial and lasting adjustment. We are 
fortunate in meeting at such a time, in represent- 
ing such constituencies, in legislating for such a 
country. 



REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. 



123 



Trusting, gentlemen, that our official inter- 
course may be free from all personal asperity, be- 
lieving that all our labors will eventuate for the 
public good, and craving the blessing of Him 
without whose aid we labor in vain, I am now 
ready to proceed with the further organization 
of the House ; and, as the first step thereto, I will 
myself take the oath prescribed by the Constitu- 
tion and laws/' 

The activities of Mr. Blaine were by no means 
confined to the Speaker s chair. He could not 
properly go upon the floor of the House to take 
part in debate and in shaping legislation, but he 
was still a leader in the councils of his party. 
Early in the first session of the Forty-second 
Congress General Benjamin F. Butler, then a 
Representative from Massachusetts, made a 
bitter attack upon him for being the author 
of a resolution just introduced, ''providing for 
an investigation into alleged outrages perpe- 
trated upon loyal citizens of the South." Mr. 
Blaine at once left the chair and made reply, 
and the colloquy that followed shows well his 
readiness of repartee and the effective manner in 
which he dealt with his opponents. Mr. Wheeler, 
of New York, took the chair temporarily and 
Mr. Blaine said : 

I desire to ask the gentleman from Massachu- 
setts (Mr. Butler) whether he denies to me the 
rigrht to have drawn that resolution 



124 



JAMES G, BLAINE, 



Mr. Butler.— I have made no assertion on that 
subject one way or the other. 

Mr. Blaine. — Did not the gentleman distinctly 
know that I drew it ? 

Wr, Butler.— No, sir. 

Mr. Blaine. — Did I not take it to the gentle- 
man and read it to him ? 
Mr. Buden— Yes, sir. 

Mr. Blaine. — Did I not show him the manu- 
script ? 

Mr. Butler.— Yes, sir. 

Mr. Blaine. —In my own handwriting? 

Mr. Butler. — No, sir. 

Mr. Blaine.— And at his suggestion I added 
these words : And the expenses of said com- 
mittee shall be paid from the contingent fund of 
the House of Representatives'' (applause), and 
the fact that ways and means were wanted 
to pay the expenses was the only objection he 
made to it. 

Mr. Butler.- — What was the answer the gentle- 
man made ? I suppose I may ask that, now that 
the Speaker has come upon the floor. 

Mr. Blaine. — The answer was that I imme- 
diately wrote the amendment providing for the 
payment of the expenses of the committee. 

Mr. Butler. — What was my answer ? Was it 
not that under no circumstances would I have 
any thing to do with it, being bound by the action 
of the caucus ? 



REPRESENTA TIVE IN CONGRESS, 1 2 5 



Mr. Blaine. — No, sir ; the answer was that 
under no circumstances would you serve as chair- 
man. 

Mr. Butler. — Or have anything to do with the 
resolution. 

Mr. Blaine.— There are two hundred and 
twenty-four members of the House of Representa- 
tives. i\ committee of thirteen can be found 
without the gentleman from Massachusetts being 
on it. His service is not essential to the constitu- 
tion of the committee. 

Mr. Butler. — Why did you not find such a 
committee, then ? 

Mr. Blaine.— Because I knew very well that if 
I omitted the appointment of the gentleman it 
would be heralded throughout the length aad 
breadth of the country, by the claquers who have 
so industriously distributed this letter this morn- 
ing, that the Speaker had packed the committee, 
as the gentleman said he would, with ''weak- 
kneed Republicans,'' who would not go into an 
investigation vigorously, as he would. That was 
the reason. (Applause.) vSo that the Chair laid 
t!ie responsibility upon the gentleman of declin- 
ing the appointment. 

Mr. Butler. — I knew that was the trick of the 
Chair. 

Mr. Blaine.— Ah, the ''trick!" We now know 
what the gentleman meant by the word trick." 
I am very glad to know the ''trick" was successful. 



126 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



Mr. Butler.— No doubt. 

Mr. Blaine.— It is this ''trick" which places the 
gentleman from Massachusetts on his responsibil- 
ity before the country. 

Mr. Butler. — Exactly. 

Mr. Blaine.— Wholly. 

Mr. Butler.— Wholly. 

Mr. Blaine. — Now, sir, the gentleman from 
Massachusetts talks about the coercion by which 
fifty-eight Republicans were made to vote for the 
resolution. I do not know what any one of them 
may have to say, but if there be here to-day a 
single gentleman w^ho has given to the gentleman 
of Massachusetts the intimation that he felt 
coerced — that he was in any way restrained from 
free action, let him get up now and speak, or 
forever after hold his peace. 

Mr. Buder. — Oh, yes. 

Mr. Blaine. — The gentleman from Massachu- 
setts says : '' Having been appointed against my 
wishes, expressed both publicly and privately, by 
the Speaker, as chairman of a committee to 
investigate the state of affairs in the South, 
ordered to-day by Democratic votes, against the 
most earnest protest of more than a tv/o-thirds 
majority of the Republicans of the House." 

Mr. Buder. — Yes, sir. 

Mr. Blaine. — This statement is so bold and 
groundless that I do not know what reply to make 
to it. It is made in the face of the fact that on 



REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS, 



129 



the roll-call fifcy-cight Republicans voted for the 
resolution, and torty-nine, besides the gentleman 
from Massachusetts, against it. I deny that the 
gentleman has the right to speak for any member 
who voted for it, unless it may be the member 
from Tennessee (Mr. Maynard), who voted for 
it, for the purpose, probably, of moving a recon- 
sideration — a very common, a very justifiable and 
proper course whenever any gentleman chooses 
to adopt it. I am not criticising at all. But if 
there be any one of the fifty-eight gentlemen who 
voted for the resolution under coercion I would 
like the gentleman from Massachusetts to desig- 
nate him. 

Mr. Butler. — I am not here to retail private 
conversations. 

Mr. Blaine. — Oh, no ; but you will distribute 
throughout the entire country unfounded calum- 
nies purporting to rest upon assertions made in 
private conversations, which, when called for, can- 
not be verified. 

Mr. Butler. — Pardon me, sir. I said there was 
a caucus 

Mr. Blaine. — I hope God will pardon you ; but 
you ought not to ask me to do it ! (Laughter.) 

Mr. Butler. — I will ask God, and not you. 

Mr. Blaine, — I am glad the gentleman will. 

Mr. Butler. — I have no favors to ask of the 
devil. And let me say that the caucus agreed 
upon a definite mode of action. 

8 



JAMES G, BLAINE. 



Mr. Blaine. — The caucus ! Now, let me say 
here and now, that the Chairman of that caucus, 
sitting on my right, ''a chevaher " in legislation, 
sans petir et sans reproche^ the gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Austin Blair) stated, as a man of 
honor, as he is, that he was bound to say officially 
from the chair, that it was not considered, and 
could not be considered binding upon gentlemen. 
And more than that. Talk about tricks ! Why, 
the very infamy of polidcal trickery never com- 
passed a design so foolish and so wicked as to 
bring together a caucus, and attempt to pledge 
them to the support of measures which might 
violate not only the political principles, but the 
religious faith of men — to the support of the bill 
drawn by the gentleman from Massachusetts, 
which might violate the conscientious scruples of 
men. And yet, forsooth, he comes in here and 
declares that whatever a caucus may determine 
upon, however hastily, however crudely, however 
wrongfully, you must support it ! Why, even in 
the worst days of the Democracy, when the 
gentleman himself was in the front rank of the 
worst wing of it, when was it ever attempted to 
say that a majority of a party caucus could bind 
men upon measures that involved questions of 
constitutional law, of personal honor, of religious 
scruple? The gentleman asked what would have 
been done — he asked my colleague (Mr. Peters) 
what would have been done in case of members 



REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. 



of a party voting against the caucus nominee for 
Speaker. I understand that was intended as a 
thrust at myself. Caucus nominations of officers 
have always been held as binding. But, just here, 
let me say, that if a minority did not vote against 
ihe decision of the caucus that nominated me for 
Speaker, in my judgment it was not the fault of 
the gentleman from Massachusetts. (Applause.) 
If the requisite number could have been found to 
have gone over to the despised Nazarenes on the 
opposite side, that gentleman would have led 
them as gallantly as he did the forces in the 
Charleston Convention. (Renewed applause and 
laughter.) 

Mr. Speaker, in old times, it was the ordi- 
nary habit of the Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives to take part in debate. The custom 
has fallen into disuse. For one, I am very 
glad that it has. For one, I approve of the 
conclusion that forbids it. The Speaker should, 
with consistent fidelity to his ovv ii party, be the 
impartial administrator of the rules of the House, 
and a constant participation in the discussions of 
members would take from him that appearance of 
impartiality, which it is so important to maintain 
in the rulings of the Chair. But at the same time 
I despise and denounce the insolence of the 
gentleman from Massachusetts, when he attempts 
to say that the Representative from the Third 
District of the State of Maine has no rioht to 



132 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



frame a resolution ; has no right to seek that 
under the rules that resolution shall be adopted ; 
has no right to ask judgment of the House upon 
that resolution. Why, even the insolence of the 
gentleman himself never reached that sublime 
heio-ht before. 

o 

''Now, Mr. Speaker, nobody regrets more 
sincerely than I do, any occurrence which calls me 
to take the floor. On questions of propriety, I 
appeal to members on both sides of the House, 
and they will bear witness, that the circulation of 
this latter in the morning prints ; its distribution 
throughout the land by telegraph ; the laying it 
upon the desks of members, was intended to be 
by the gentleman from Massachusetts, not openly 
and boldly, but covertly — I will not use a stranger 
phrase — an insult to the Speaker of this House. 
As such I resent it. I denounce it in all its 
essential statements, and in all its misstatements, 
and in all its mean inferences and meaner innuen- 
does. I denounce the letter as groundless, with- 
out justification ; and the gentleman himself, I 
trust, will live to see the day when he will be 
ashamed of havino- written it.'' 

At the close of this Congress, on motion of the 
leader of the Democratic members, Mr. Blaine 
was heartily thanked for the able and impartial 
manner in which he had discharged his duties, and 
responded as follows : 



Representative m congress. 



For the forty-second time since the Federal 
Government was organized, its great representa- 
tive body stands on the eve of dissolution. The 
final word which separates us is suspended for a 
moment, that I may return my sincere thanks for 
the kind expressions respecting my official con- 
duct, which, without division of party, you have 
caused to be entered on your journal. 

At the close of four years' service in this re- 
sponsible and often trying position, it is a source 
of honorable pride that I have so administered my^ 
trust as to secure the confidence and approbation 
of both sides of the House. It would not be 
strange if, in the necessarily rapid discharge of 
the daily business, I should have erred in some of 
the decisions made on points, and often without 
precedent to guide me. It has been my good 
fortune, however, to be always sustained by the 
House, and in no sino-le instance to have had a 
ruHng reversed. I advert to this gratifying fact, 
to quote the language of the most eloquent of my 
predecessors, ' in no vain spirit of exakation, but 
as furnishing a powerful motive for undissembled 
gratitude.' 

And now, gentlemen, with a hearty God bless 
you all, I discharge my only remaining duty in de- 
claring that the House of Representatives for the 
Forty-second Congress is adjourned without day." 

There was, in 1872, a considerable secession from 
the ranks of the Republican party, many of its 



134 



JAAj^S G, J^LAINE. 



members, styling themselves Liberal Republicans, 
forming a fusion with the Democrats. Mt. Blaine 
discountenanced this movement and stood by the 
old party, and was re-elected to Congress for a 
sixth term by 3,568 majority. Again he was the 
choice of his party for the Speakership, and was 
elected to that office for the third time, receiving 
189 votes against 80 cast for all others. His ad- 
dress at the beorinninor of the third term of his 
00 

Speakership was as follows : 

*'The vote this moment announced by the clerk 
is such an expression of your confidence as calls 
for my sincerest thanks. To be chosen Speaker 
of the American House of Representatives is al- 
ways an honorable distinction ; to be chosen a 
thJrd time enhances the honor more than three- 
fold ; to be chosen by the largest body that ever 
assembled in the capitol imposes a burden of 
responsibiHty wuich only 3/our indulgent kindness 
cc>vild embolden me to assume. 

*'The first occupant of this chair presided over 
a House of sixty-five m.embers, representing a 
population far below the present aggregate of the 
State of New York. At that time in the whole 
United States there were not fifty thousand civilized 
inhabitants to be found one hundred miles dis- 
tant from the flow of the Atlantic tide. To-day, 
gentlemen, a large body of you come from beyond 
that limit, and represent districts then peopled 
oiily by the Indian and adventurous frontiersman. 



REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. 



The National Government is not yet as old as 
many of its citizens ; but in this brief span of time, 
less than one lengthened life, it has, under God's 
providence, extended its power until a continent 
is the field of its empire and attests the majesty 
of its law. 

With the growth of new States and the re- 
sulting changes in the centres of population, new 
interests are developed, rival to the old, but by 
no means hostile, diverse but not antagonistic. 
Nay, rather are all these interests in harmony ; 
and the true science of just government is to give 
to each its full and fair play, oppressing none by 
undue exaction, favoring none by undue privi- 
lege. It is this great lesson which our daily 
experience is teaching us, binding us together 
more closely, making our mutual dependence 
more manifest, and causing us to feel, w^iether 
we live in the North or in the South, in the East 
or in the West, that we have indeed but ' one 
country, one Constitution, one destiny. 

Two notable incidents marked the record of 
this Congress, especially affecting Mr. Blaine. 
One was the famous bill increasino- the salaries 
of the President, Members of Congress and 
others. It has been, not unjustly, termed the 

salary- grab " bill, since by its adoption the very 
men who enacted it voted to thems-elves an 
increase of pay for the terms of office they were 
then occupying. Mr. Blaine looked upon this 



136 JAME^ G, BLAINE. 

with great disfavor. Asking permission to make 
a personal statement concerning a certain amend- 
ment to it, he said: The Chair presumes the 
language of this amendment would make the 
Speaker s salary ^10,000 for this Congress. The 
salary of the Speaker, the last time the question 
of pay was under consideration, was adjusted to 
that of the Vice-President and members of the 
Cabinet. The Chair thinks that adjustment 
should not be disturbed, and the question which 
he now raises does not affect the pay of other 
members of the House. He asks unanimous 
consent to put in the word 'hereafter,' to follow 
the words * shall receive/ This will affect who- 
ever shall be Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives hereafter, and does not affect the 
Speaker of this House.'' This bill was repealed 
at the next session, the repeal being carried by 
the deciding vote of the Speaker. 

At the close of this Congress it was known 
that Mr. Blaine would not again occupy the 
Speaker's chair, since an overwhelming Demo- 
cratic majority had been elected for the next 
House. A resolution cordially thanking him for 
his conduct in the chair was unanimously adopted, 
on motion of Mr. Potter, Democrat, of New 
York, and Mr. Blaine made the following farewell 
address on leaving the position he had filled with 
such distinguished ability for the unusually long 
term of six years : 



kEPRESEJ^TA TIVE CON CRESS, \ 3 7 



close with this hour a six years' service as 
Speaker of the House of Representatives — a 
period surpassed in length by but two of my 
predecessors, and equalled by only two others. 
The rapid mutations of personal and political 
fortunes in this country have limited the great 
majority of those who have occupied this chair 
to shorter terms of office. 

It would be the gravest insensibility to the hon- 
ors and responsibilities of Hfe, not to be deeply 
touched by so signal a mark of public esteem as 
that which I have thrice received at the hands of 
my political associates. I desire in this last 
moment to renew to them, one and all, my thanks 
and my gratitude. 

"To those from whom I differ in my party 
relations— the minority of this House— I tender 
my acknowledgments for the generous courtesy 
with which they have treated me. By one of 
those sudden and decisive changes which distin- 
guish popular institutions, and which conspicuously 
mark a free people, that minority is transformed 
in the ensuing Congress to the governing power 
of the House. However it might possibly have 
been under other circumstances, that event ren- 
ders these words my farewell to the Chair. 

'*The Speakership of the American House of 
Representatives is a post of honor, of dignity, of 
power, of responsibility. Its duties are at once 
complex and continuous ; they are both onerous 



138 JAMES G. BLAINE, 

and delicate ; they are performed in the broad 
light of day, under the eye of the whole people, 
subject at all times to the closest observation, and 
always attended with the sharpest criticism*. I 
think no other official is held to such instant and 
such rigid accountability. Parliamentary rulings 
in their very nature are peremptory ; almost ab- 
solute in authority and instantaneous in effect. 
They cannot always be enforced in such a way as 
to win applause or secure popularity, but I am 
sure that no man of any party who is worthy to 
fill this chair will ever see a dividing line between 
duty and policy. 

Thanking you once more, and thanking you 
most cordially for tiie honorable testimonial you 
have placed on record to my credit, I perform my 
only remaining duty in declaring that the Forty- 
third Congress has reached its constitutional 
limit, and that the House of Representatives 
stands adjourned v/ithout day." 

As the Speaker closed his address and walked 
down from the chair, says a newspaper observer, 
an outburst of handclapping and cheers broke 
from the upstanding members, and v/as joined in 
by the immense assemblage on the floor and in 
the galleries. Never before was witnessed such 
a scene at the close of a Congress. 

The elections of 1874 amounted to a political 
revolution, the Democratic party gaining control of 
the House of Representatives by an overwhelming 



REPRESENTA TIVE IN. CONGRESS. 



majority. Thereupon Mr. Blaine, who had 
b':^,en elected for a seventh term by a majority 
of 2,830, became the leader of the Republican 
minority on the floor, and showed himself one of 
the most brilliant and effective leaders ever pos- 
sessed by a minority party. The two leading 
incidents of his career in this Congress must be 
separately considered. It will here be necessary 
only to refer to his effort, in 1875 1876, to 

secure the adoption of the following amendment 
to the Constitution : No State shall make any 
law respecting an establishment of religion, or 
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; and no 
money raised by taxation in any State for the 
support of public schools, or derived from any 
public fund therefor, nor any public lands devoted 
thereto, shall ever be under the control of any 
religious sect ; nor shall any money so raised or 
lands so devoted be divided between religious 
sects or denominations." Mr. Blaine, in public 
and in private, strongly urged the adoption of this 
measure, but did not succeed. 

His career as a Representative in Congress 
came to an end in June, 1876, when he was 
appointed to fill an unexpired term in the United 
States Senate. As his own expression of the 
principles that governed him on great questions of 
public policy during his career in the House, the 
following quotation niay well be made. It is 
taken from the, letter written by him on July 3, 



James g, blaine. 



1874, accepting the nomination for liis seventh and 
last term in Congress. In this letter Mr. Blaine 
wrote : 

''The resolutions to which you invite my at- 
tention are so generally acceptable to the people 
of the district that no issue will be made on the 
matters embraced in them. The currency ques- 
tion at one time threatening to divide parties, and 
what would be far more serious, to divide sections, 
is in process of a happy adjustment, partly by wise 
and temperate enactment passed by a large 
majority in both branches of Congress and ap- 
proved by the President, but in a far greater de- 
gree by the operation of causes more powerful 
than any legislation can be. In these remarks I 
am, indeed, but repeating, in substance, the reso- 
lutions of your Convention, and I gladly adopt 
as my own the leading declaration of the series that 
' it is the imperative duty of the National Govern- 
m.ent to return to specie payment as soon as wise 
statesmanship can safely reach that result.' 

'' But while our political opponents in Maine 
will not seriously contest any position taken by 
us, they have themselves chosen to raise another 
issue on which we will not be slow to differ from 
them. The Democratic State Convention, in re- 
nominating their respectable candidate for Gov- 
ernor, adopted with suggestive unanimity the fol- 
lowincr resolution as the leadinof article in their 
revised political creed : 



REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS, 



141 



'Resolved, That a Protective Tariff is a most 
unjust, unequal, oppressive and wasteful mode of 
raising the pubUc revenues. It is one of the most 
pregnant and fruitful sources of the corruptions in 
administration. We therefore, the democracy of 
Maine, in Convention assembled, declare for 
Free Trade, and in favor of an unfettered and 
unrestricted commerce.* 

''This advanced position, now formally and 
boldly taken by the Maine Democracy, in their 
State Convention, receives additional point and 
meaning by the letter of their gubernatorial 
candidate, Mr. Titcomb, who in accepting the 
nomination specially approves the foregoing reso- 
lution, and intimates his endurance of the lowest 
form of Revenue Tariff, only * until we shall be 
educated up to the idea of equal, direct, and 
therefore moderate taxation for the support of 
Government, and until this idea shall be brought 
into practical operation.' I have quoted Mr. 
Titcomb's own words, and it is quite evident that 
the startling dogma to which he commits himself, 
is in sympathy with more impressive movements 
to be m^ade elsewhere in the same direction, and 
is first thrown out in Maine as an experiment on 
public opinion. If there were the slightest dan- 
ger of the Democratic party, with this avowed 
policy, coming into power, the dangers ahead 
would be truly appalling ; but as no such calamity 
impends, we may be allowed to examine with 



142 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



more coolness the wild absurdity of the proposi- 
tion. 

You will observe that the issue proposed is 
not the old and familiar one between those who 
advocate a Tariff for I'rotection, and those who 
wish duties imposed only for Revenue. That 
is an issue as old as the levying of imposts, and, 
wath occasional exceptions, has been determined 
largely by latitude and longitude, or by the differ- 
ing interests which cliange of section and varying 
forms of industry have developed. But the 
Maine Democracy assumes that all Tariffs are 
more or less Protective, and hence they are hostile 
to them, and pronounce for 'Free Trade,' pure 
and simple, absolute and without qualification, or 
to quote their own words, for 'an unfettered and 
unrestricted commerce.' 

Without attempting to argue the question in its 
relation to the whole country, let us see how this 
new doctrine would affect Maine. The process 
would be simple, the results readily deduced, 
the effect bliorhtine and disastrous to the last de- 
gree. For some years past, to deal in round 
numbers, the Federal Government has been 
collecting a revenue of three hundred millions 
of dollars — one-third from internal taxes, two- 
thirds from tariff duties. It is now proposed 
by the Maine Democracy to abolish all these 
duties, have absolute 'Free Trade' with an 
'unfettered and unrestricted commerce.' In 



REPRESEXTATIVE IX COXGRESS, 



Other words, the Maine Democracy propose to 
raise the two hundred millions of dollars in gold 
coin, now obtained from tariff duties, by ' direct 
taxation,' or by a system, of * excises ' which 
might prove even more oppressive than direct 
taxation itself There is no other mode open 
under the Constitution by which the money can- 
be raised than the two named, if the tariff be 
abandoned, and Mr. Titcomb declares for direct 
taxation. Now if the money is to be secured by 
direct taxation, as Mr. Titcomb proposes, it 
will be found to be Maine's great misfortune, 
that the Constitution requires the tax to be 
levied in proportion to population and not ac- 
cording to vx'ealth. By the ninth census, Maine 
has about one-sixtieth of the total population of 
United States, and her share of two hundred 
millions of direct taxation v/ould be something 
over three and a quarter millions of dollars in 
^oVl coin — the sinorle Congressional District 
whose constituents I am addressing, would be 
called upon for seven hundred thousand dollars. 
The peculiar hardship of raising taxes in this way 
is made manifest by the simple fact that Maine 
would be compelled to pay nearly one-half as 
much as Massachusetts, while in fact she has but 
one-seventh of the wealth of that highly-favored 
and prosperous Commonwealth. To properly 
estimate the exhausting and oppressive nature of 
this enormous tax, you have but to consider 



144 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



that it would be three times as large as the pres- 
ent State tax, and would necessarily be levied in 
addition thereto. 

''But if against Mr. Tilcomb's policy the direct 
tax were avoided, it would be necessary to have 
instead of it a system of excises as onerous and 
as odious as human ingenuity could devise. A 
heavy internal tax would inevitably be levied on 
all manufactures and indeed upon all the pro- 
ducts of the field and the forest, the shipyard and 
the quarry ; and every form of industry would be 
burdened and borne down by the exactions of the 
tax-gatherer. And these grievous hardships 
would be imposed on our own people, in order 
that foreign countries might have the benefit of 
our markets for their products, without duty and 
without tax. Our lumber interests, embarrassed 
and oppressed, w^ould have to compete with the 
untaxed products of the Canadian forest ; our 
manufactures would pay taxes for the benefit 
of European fabrics ; our ship-building would 
be destroyed by the taxation, which would ren- 
der it incapable of competing with provincial 
bottoms, and under the magic spell of Dem- 
ocratic free trade our coasting and lake 
commerce, confimed to our own people since the 
foundation of the government, would be thrown 
open to the whole world. Taxation in all forms 
is one of the burdens of civilization, but instead of 
ameliorating its severity and, if possible, getting 



ROSCOE COXKLING. 



REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. 1 47 

from it such compensating advantages as wise 
legislation can provide, our Maine Democrats 
propose to make it to the last degree oppressive 
to our own people and beneficial only to the alien 
and the stranger. 

"To the people of Maine, at this very moment, 
these extravagant declarations of the Democratic 
party have a painful significance, for it is well 
known that the authorities of Canada are trving- 
to negotiate with our government a reciprocity 
treaty, which, like its illustrious predecessor and 
namesake, maintains the reciprocity all on one 
side. The treaty of that name, w^hich w^as termi- 
nated in 1866, was cruelly oppressive to the 
people of Maine, and inflicted upon our State, 
during the eleven years of its existence, a loss of 
fifty millions of dollars. It presented the very 
singular anomaly of giving to the Canadians the 

control in our own markets of certain leading ar- 

<_> 

tides, on terms far more favorable than our own 
people had ever enjoyed. The utmost stretch of 
the Divine command is to love our neighbor as 
ourselves, and I can certainly see nothing in per- 
sonal duty or public policy w^hich should lead us 
to prefer our Canadian neighbors to our own 
people. 

*'The treaty of reciprocity, now proposed, is 
understood to embrace the admission of Canadian 
vessels to free American Registry, and the full en- 
joyment of our coasting and lake trade. Thus 
9 



148 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



the ship-building and commercial interests of the 
United States, reviving so, prosperously of late, 
and just recovering from the terrible blows dealt 
by British-built cruisers during the war, are again 
to be struck down by giving advantages, hitherto 
undreamed of, to the ships of the very power 
that inflicted the previous injury. And the Dem- 
ocratic party of Maine have pledged themselves, 
in their State Convention, to the policy that in- 
cludes this disastrous attack upon the interests of 
our State, and their candidate for Governor has 
fully committed himself to the extreme doctrine 
announced by the Convention. 

"The form of Reciprocity proposed by the 
Government of the Dominion of Canada lacks 
every element of the seductive title, by which it 
is sought to commend it to our people. What is 
it? Why, simply this : That if the United States 
will agree to admit certain Canadian products free 
of duty, Canada in turn will agree to admit cer- 
tain American fabrics free of duty. But the class 
of men to be benefited, and the class to be in- 
jured, in the United States, are entirely distinct 
and separate, having nothing in common, either 
in l ocality, industry or investment. To compen- 
sate the surrender of ons interest in this w^ay by 
the advancement of another, has no more element 
of reciprocal justice in it, than for A to take a 
pair of horses from B, because C took possession 
of a yoke of oxen belonging to D. To illustrate : 



REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. 1 49 

If the United States will agree to admit Canadian 
vessels to American Registry and the coasting- 
trade, Canada will admit straw hats, mule harness, 
and rat-traps, free of duty. In this you will ob- 
serve that Canada gets the full advantage both 
ways, while the United States, for a possible en- 
largement of petty trade, consents to subordinate 
and sacrifice an interest that represents our dis- 
tinctive nationality, in all climes and upon all seas ; 
an interest that has given more and asked less of 
the Government than any other of similar magni- 
tude ; an interest, more essentially American, in 
the highest and best sense, than any other which 
falls under the legislative power of the Govern- 
ment, and which asks only to-day, to be left where 
the founders of the Republic placed it nearly a 
century ago. 

Against the whole policy of adjusting Revenue 
questions by the Treaty-making power, I desire to 
enter, on behalf of my constituents, an emphatic 
protest. The Constitution gives to the House of 
Representatives the sole and exclusive right to 
originate Bills of Revenue, and this great power 
should be kept where it can be controlled by the 
direct vote of the people every two years- It may 
very well be that sundry articles of Canadian 
product should be admitted free, or with diminished 
duty ; it may w^ell be, also, that Canada would find 
it advantageous to admit certain articles from us 
free of duty. Let each country decide the 



150 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



question for itself independently, and avoid the 
'log-rolling' feature of a Treaty, in which it will 
inevitably happen that certain interests will be 
sacrificed in order that others may be promoted. 
Let us simply place Canada on the same basis 
with other foreign countries — taxing her products, 
or admittinof them free, accordino- to our own 
judgment of the interest of our Revenue, and 
the pursuits and needs of our people — always 
bearing in mind, that in Governmental, as in 
family matters, 'charity begins at home,' and that 
' he who provideth not for those of his own house, 
is worsQ than an infidel.' " ' 



CHAPTER VI. 



FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS. 

The Debate on the Pro-posal to Restore Jefferson Davis to Full Citizenship 
— Action by the Forty-third and Forty-fourth Congresses— A Powerful 
Speech by Benjamin H. Hill, of Georgia — Mr. Blaine's Reply — The 
Incident that Gave Him the Title of *Uhe Plumed Knight." 

In the Forty-third Congress, the House Com^ 
mittee on Rules, of which Mr. Blaine was Chair- 
man, reported a General Amnesty bill so con> 
prehensive and generous that even Jefferson 
Davis, the ex-President of the Rebel Confederacy, 
was included within the scope of its benevolence; 
and the House, of which Mr. Blaine was Speaker, 
adopted it almost unanimously without the for- 
mality of a roll-call. In the House of Representa- 
tives of the next Congress, the Hon. Michael C. 
Kerr, a Democrat, was Speaker; the Hon. Samuel 
J. Randall was the Democratic leader on the 
floor of the House ; and Mr. Blaine was the 
leader of the Republican minority. The question 
of amnesty again came up, in January, 1876, the 
chief point at issue being whether Jefferson Davis 
should be restored to all the rights of citizenship, 
or should, alone of all the ex-rebels, be denied 
such favor. 
151 



James g. blaine 



The debate that ensued was fierce and bitter in 
an extreme degree. The War of the Rebellion 
was fought over again, in words. The infamies 
of the Southern prison-pens, in which captive 
Northern troops were starved and murdered, 
formed a conspicuous theme. Among the leaders 
of debate on the Democratic side was the Hon. 
Benjamin H. Hill, of Georgia, who had been op- 
posed to secession before the war, but had quickly 
joined the movement when once it actually begun, 
and had been thereafter one of the foremost 
spirits of the Confederacy. On January ii, 1876, 
he m.ade a powerful and eloquent address in the 
House, especially on the subject of Anderson- 
ville, in which he defended the Confederate 
authorities against the charges of cruelty that had 
been made, and actually declared that the United 
States Government was responsible for what its 
captive soldiers suffered in that prison. Two days 
later, Mr. Blaine made reply. It was the culmi- 
nating point of the debate, and the interest of the 
House, and of the whole Nation, was at the high- 
est tension. 

It was this speech that impelled Colonel R. G. 
IngersoU, a few months later, to fix upon Mr. 
Blaine the title of *^the Plumed Knight.'' An- 
other observer likened him to a gladiator in the 
midst of an arena. **He taunted and worried 
his enemies until he provoked them to strike, and 
then sprang upon them and tore them to pieces/' 



FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS. 1 53 

la Mr. Hill he had a mighty antagonist ; but he 
utterly vanquished him, and liopelessly destroyed 
his prospects of gaining the Democratic leader- 
ship. The text of this speech, one of the most 
noteworthy ever made in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, is as follows : 

"Mr. Speaker: Before proceeding with the 
remark which I shall address to the questions be- 
fore the House, I desire to say that in the dis- 
cussion on the point of order that was raised just 
prior to the adjournment last evening, I did not 
intend to be understood, and hope no gentleman 
understood me, as implying that the honorable 
Speaker intended in any way to deprive me of the 
right to speak. I did not so understand the 
Speaker, nor did I understand it to be the motive 
or object of the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
(Mr. RandaU). I say this much in justice to my- 
self and in justice to the honorable incumbent of 
the chair. 

''From the tone of the debate on the oppo- 
site side of the chamber, Mr. Speaker, one 
would certainly imagine that the Republican 
party, as represented in Congress, v\^as trying 
to inflict some new punishment or add some 
fresh stigma to the name of Jefferson Davis, as 
well, indeed, as to lay some additional burden 
on those other cidzens of the South who are 
not yet fully amnestied. It may therefore not 
ba unprofitable just to recall to the attention of 



154 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



the House the precise question at issue, and 
how it came here, and who it was that brought 
it here. 

'' The gentleman from Pennsylvania introduced 
a bill to confer special honor on Jefferson Davis ; 
for what honor can be higher than the full 
panoplied citizenship of the United States of 
America? He has lost it by his crime, and the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania proposes in hot 
haste, without debate, without amendment, to 
drag every gentleman up to say ' Aye ' or ' No ' 
upon a bill declaring him to be entided now and 
henceforth to all the rights and all the honors of 
American citizenship. From that we dissent. 
We did not bring the question here. We are not 
seeking to throv/ any fresh element of an in- 
flammatory kind into any discussion or differ- 
ence that may be between two parties or two 
sections, and wdiatever of that kind has grown 
from this discussion lies at the door of the gentle- 
man from Pennsylvania and those who stand 
with him. 

Remember, Mn Speaker, it is no proposition 
to punish, but a proposition to honor, and while 
we disclaim any intention or desire to punish 
Jefferson Davis, we resist the proposition to 
honor him. And right here, as a preliminary 
matter, I desire to address myself for a moment 
to the constitutional point suggested by the 
honorable gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. 



FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS. 1 55 



Seelye), who addressed the House last evening. 
He sees and appreciates the magnitude of the 
crime laid at the door of Jefferson Davis, and he 
clearly pointed out that neither the gentleman 
from New York nor the gentleman from Georgia 
had palliated or dared to palliate the crimes with 
which I charged him. But he is bothered by the 
scruple that because we are permitted to punish 
for participancy in insurrection or rebellion we 
cannot make any discrimination or distinction. 
Why, the honorable gentleman m.ust have for- 
gotten that this is precisely what we have been 
doing ever since the disability was imposed. We 
first removed the disabilities from the least offen- 
sive class ; then in the next list we removed those 
next in order of guilty participancy, and so on, 
until in 1872 we removed the disability from all, 
except the army and navy officers, members of 
Congress, and heads of departments. Why, sir, 
are we not as much justified to-day in excepting 
Jefferson Davis as we were in 1872 in excepting 
the seven hundred and fifty of whom he con- 
stitutes one ? Therefore I bee to say to mv 
honorable friend, whose co-operation I crave, 
that that point is res adjiidicata by a hundred 
acts upon the statute book. We are entirely 
competent to do just what is proposed in my 
amendment. 

Now, Mr. Speaker, on the question of the 
treatment of our prisoners and on the great 



156 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



question to who was to blame for breaking 
exchange, the speech of the honorable gentleman 
from Ohio (Mr. Garfield) has left me literally 
nothing to say. He exhausted the subject. His 
speech w^as unanswerable, and I undertake to say 
that as yet no gentleman has answered one fact 
that he alleged — no gentleman in this House can 
answer one fact presented by him. I shall not 
therefore at any length dwell upon that. But in 
connection with one point in history there is some- 
thing which I should feel it my duty, not merely 
as a member of the Republican party which up- 
held the administration that conducted the war, 
but as a citizen of the American Union, to resist 
and resent, and that is, the allegations that 
were made in regard to the manner in which 
Confederate prisoners were treated in the 
prisons of the Union. The gentleman from 
Georgia says : ' I have also proved that with all 
the liorrors you have made such a noise about as 
occurring at Andersonville, greater horrors 
occurred in the prisons where our troops were 
held.' 

And I could not but admire the \ our ' and the 
'your' with which the gentleman conducted the 
whole discussion. It ill comported with his later 
profession of Unionism. It v/as certainly flinging 
the shadow of a dead confederacy a long way over 
the dial of the National House of Representatives ; 
and I think the gentleman from New York 



FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS. 1 57 



fell into a little of the same line. Of that 1 shall 
speak again. 

' if- % ^ i(i ^ 5fC Mi 

am quoting the gentleman's speech as he 
delivered it. I quote it as it appeared in The 
Daily Chrmicle and the Associated Press report. 
I do not pretend to be bound by the version which 
may appear hereafter, because I observed that 
the gentleman from New York (Mr. Cox) spoke 
one speech and published another (great laugh- 
ter), and I suppose the gentleman from Georgia 
will do the same. I admit that the gentleman 
has a difficult role to play. He has to harmonize 
himself with the great Northern Democracy and 
keep himself in high line as a Democratic candi- 
date for Senator from Georgia ; and it is a very 
difficult thing to reconcile the two. (Laughter.) 
The * barn-burner Democrats' in 1853 tried very 
hard to adhere to their anti-slavery principles in 
New York and still support the Pierce administra- 
tion ; and Mr. Greely, with that inimitable humor 
which he possessed, said that they found it a very 
hard road to straddle, like a militia general on 
parade on Broadway, who finds it an almost impos- 
sible task to follow the music and dodge the omni- 
buses. (Laughter.) And that is what the gentleman 
does. The gentleman 'tries to keep step to the 
music of the Union and dodge his fire-eating con- 
stituency in Georgia. (Great laughter.) Then here 
is another quotation : ' We know our prisoners 



158 



JAMES G. BLAIXE. 



suffered in Federal hands, and we know how, if • 
we chose to tell, thousands of our poor men came 
home from Fort Delaware and other places with 
their fingers frozen off, with their toes frozen off, 
with their teeth fallen out.' 

\< ^ ii; ;i; >i< 

'' The gentleman from Ne\v York stated that 
'he had it on the authority of sixty and odd gen- 
tlemen here, mxanv of them havinor been in the 
ser\'ice of the Confederacy durinor the war, that 
no order was issued at any time in the South rel- 
ative to prisoners who were taken b}' the South 
as to rations or clothing that did not apply equally 
to their ovrn soldiers, and that any ex parte state- 
ments taken bv that humbu^^ com.mittee on the 
conduct of the war could not controvert the facts 
of history.' The gentleman therefore stands up here 
as denying the atrocities of Andersonville. He 
seconds the o-entleman from Georo-ia and ogives 
the Vv'eiQ;ht of whatever m.av be attached to his 
word to denvinof that fact. Now. the eentleman 
himself did not alwa.ys talk so. I have here a 
debate that occurred on the tv/enty-first of 
December, 1S64,, in which, v;hile the proposition 
was pending in the House for retaliation, the gen- 
tleman, then fi'om Ohio, said : ' This resolution 
provides for inriiciing upon the rebel prisoners 
who may be in our hands the same inhuman, 
barbarous, horrible treatment which has been 
inflicted upon our soldiers held as prisoners by 



FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS. I 59 



the rebels. Now, Mr. Speaker ' (continued the 
enraged gentleman at that time), 'it does not 
follow that because the rebels have made brutes 
and fiends of themselves that we should do like- 
wise/ 

'There is,' he says, 'a certain law of retalia- 
tion in war, I know ; but ' (continued the gentle- 
man) ' no man will stand up here and say, after 
due deliberation, that he would reduce these pris- 
oners thrust into ourhands into the same condition 
exhibited by these skeletons, these pictures, these 
anatomies brought to our attention and laid upon 
the desks of members of Congress.' Then the 
gentleman says : ' It does not follow because our 
prisoners are treated in the way represented, and 
no doubt truthfully represented.' That is what 
the gentleman said in 1864 ; but Vvhen a solemn 
com.mittee of Congress, made up of honorable 
gentlemen of both sides of the House, bring in 
exactly the statements which verify all this, then 
the gentleman states ' that the authority was a 
humbug committee/* 

'' 'Senator Hill, of Georgia, introduced the fol- 
lowing resolution in the Confederate Congress in 
October, 1862: '' That every person pretending 
to be a soldier or officer of the United States, 
who shall be captured on the soil of the Confede- 
rate States after the first day of January, 1863, 
shall be presumed to have entered the territory 



i6o 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



of the Confederate States with intent to incite 
insurrection and to abet murder ; and unless 
satisfactory proof be adduced to the contrary 
before the miUtary court before which the trial 
shall be had, he shall suffer death. And this sec- 
tion shall continue in force until the proclamation 
issued by Abraham Lincoln, dated W ashington, 
September 22, 1862, shall be rescinded."' 

Mr. Speaker, what does this mean? What 
did the gentleman from Georgia mean when, 
from the Committee on the Judiciary, he intro- 
duced the following : '2. Every white person who 
shall act as a commissioned or non-commissioned 
officer, commanding negroes or mulattoes against 
the Confederate States, or who shall arm, organ- 
ize, train or prepare negroes or mulattoes for 
military service, or aid them in any military enter- 
prise against the Confederate States, shall, if 
captured, suffer death. 3. Every commissioned 
or non-commissioned officer of the enemy who 
shall incite slaves to rebellion, or pretend to give 
them freedom, under the aforementioned Act of 
Congress and proclamation, by abducting, or 
causing them to be abducted, or inducing them to 
abscond, shall, if captured, suffer death.' Now, 
Mr. Speaker, I have searched somev/hat, but in 
vain, for anything in the world that rivals this. 
I did find, and have here in my minutes, the 
proclamation of Valmeseda, the Captain-General 
of Cuba, who was recalled by Spain because of 



FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS, l6l 



his- atrocious cruelties to the inhabitants of that 
island ; and the worst thing in all the atrocities 
laid to his charge was that he proclaimed ' that 
every man or boy over fifteen years found away 
from his house, not being able to give a satisfac- 
tory reason therefor, should suffer death/ He 
copied it from the resolution of the gentleman 
from Georgia. 

" Now, Mr. Speaker, I hold in my hand a copy 
of the Atlanta Constitution, printed on the twenty- 
fourth of January, 1875. ^^^^d that all 
these allegations against Jefferson Davis should 
be forgiven because they are all of the dead past. 

''We are told that we should not revive them, 
that there should be nothing in the world brought 
up in any way to disturb the beautiful serenity of 
the centennial year, and that to make any allusion 
to them whatever is to do an unwelcome and un- 
patriotic act. The very last declaration we have 
from Jefferson Davis authentically, in the life 
which the gentleman from Georgia held the other 
day as a text book, reads thus : 

'*'Time v/ill show, however, the amount of 
truth in the prophecy of Jefferson Davis' (says 
the biographer, made in reply to the remark that 
the cause of the Confederacy was lost. Mr. 
Davis said) : ' It appears so, but the principle for 
which we contended is bound to reassert itself, 
though it may be at another time and in another 
form;' 



l62 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



''Now, I have here, of the date of January 24, 
1875, ^ speech by the Hon. B. H. Hill, in the 
Atlanta Constitution, and it is said to have been 
the ' grandest speech ' he ever deUvered. 

I quote from him : ' Fellow-citizens : I look to 
the contest of 1876 not only as the most impor- 
tant that ever occurred in American history, but 
as the most important in the history of the world ; 
for if the people of the country cannot be aroused 
to give an overwhelming vote against this Repub- 
lican party, it w^ill perpetuate itself in power in the 
United States by precisely the same means that the 
President has taken in Louisiana, and the people 
will be powerless to prevent it except they go to 
war. (Applause,) If we fail with the ballot-box in 
1876 by reason of force, a startling question will 
present itself to the American people. I trust we 
will not fail. I hope the Northern people have 
had a sufficient subsidence of passion to see this 
question fairly.' ^ ^ 

''The gentleman says : ' If we must have war ; 
if we cannot preserve this Constitution and con- 
stitutional government by the ballot ; if force is to 
defeat the ballot ; if the war must come — God 
forbid that it should come— but if it must come ; 
if folly, if wickedness, if inordinate love of power, 
shall decree that America must save her Consti- 
tution by blood, let it come ; I am ready.' 
(Laughter.) And then the gontleman said, in 
another speech, of May 12th: 'He impressed 




WM. WINDOM. 



FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS, 1 65 

upon the colored men of the country the truth 
that, if the folly and wickedness were consum- 
mated in war, they would be the greatest sufferers. 
If peace was preserved, they were safe, but as 
sure as one war had freed them, just as sure 
another war would re-enslave them.' Now that 
was precisely the kind of talk we had here by 
folios and reams before the Rebelnon. Oh, yes, 
you were for war then. The gentleman, in his 
speech, says that the Union now is an unmixed 
blessing, providing the Democratic party can rule 
it, but that if the Republican party must rule it, 
he is for war. Why, that is just v^^hat Jefferson 
Davis said in 1861. 

I have here very much more of the same kind. 
I have been supplied with very abundant literature 
emanating from the gentleman, more, indeed, 
than I have had time to read. He seems to have 
been as voluminous as the Spanish Chroniclers. 
In one speech he says : T must say a word about 
this list of disabilities removed. I would rather 
see my name recorded in the Georgia penitentiary 
than to find it on a list of the removal of disabili- 
ties. Why, my friends, do you not know that 
when you go to that Congress and ask for a re- 
moval of disabilities, you admit that you are a 
traitor?' " 

Mr. Hill. — What do you read from ? 

Mr. Blaine. — From a report in a Cincinnati 

Daily Gazette giving an account of a great 
10 



JAMES G, BLAIM:. 



meeting in 1868, at which Howell Cobb, Robert 
Toombs and the Hon. B. H. Hill made speeches. 
And there the gentleman declared that he would 
rather have his name on the list of the Georgia 
penitentiary than on the list of the removal of 
disabilities. 

Mr. Speaker, I do not desire to stir up more 
needless ill-blood, but the gentleman from Ohio 
(Mr. Garfield) yesterday, apparently without 
much thought, spoke of a class of men in the 
Southern States who had committed perjury, and 
I would like to address the gentleman a question 
that he can answer when he gets the floor." 

Mr. Hill. — Will you not allow me to answer 
it now ? 

Mr. Blaine. — No, sir, not now. Suppose you 
inaugurate a great war if the Republican party 
retains power, and you and all these gentlemen 
who sympathize with you upon this floor, and 
who had taken an oath to bear true allegiance to 
the government of the United States, and that you 
took that oath without mental reservation, then 
revolt against the country ; what would that be ? 
Would it have any relation to perjury? 

But, Mr. Speaker, you see the effect of the 
speeches of the gentleman from Georgia. They 
are very tremendous down there. The very earth 
quakes under him. One of his organs says : ' We 
assert without fear of contradiction that Mr. Hill 
in his bitter denunciation of scalawags and 



FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS, 1 6/ 

carpet-baggers has deterred thousands of them 
from entering the ranks of the Radical party. 
They dare not do so for fear of social ostracism, 
and to-day the white population of Georgia are 
unanimous in favor of the Democratic party/ 

And when he can get the rest of the States to 
the same standard he is for war. 

''Now, Mr. Speaker, the gentleman cannot, by 
withholding his speech here and revising it and 
adapting it to the Northern Democracy, erase his 
speeches in Georgia. I have quoted from them. 
I have quoted from Democratic papers. There is 
no accusation that there is any perversion in Re- 
publican papers or that he was misrepresented. 
But the gentleman deliberately states that in a 
certain contingency of the Republican party hav- 
ing power he is for war ; and I undertake here to 
say that, in all the mad, hot wrath in the Thirty- 
sixth Congress that precipitated the revolt in this 
country, there is not one speech to be found that 
breathes a more determined rebellion against law- 
ful authority or a guiltier readiness to resist it 
than the speech of the gentleman from^ Georgia. 

Mr. Speaker, I have not much time left. I 
said briefly in my first speech, that God forbid I 
should lay at the door of the Southern people, as 
a people, these atrocities. I repeat it, I lay no 
such charge at their door. Sir, I have read in this 
* ex parte humbug report ' that there were deep 
movements among the Southern people about 



l68 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



these atrocities ; that there was a profound sensi- 
bility. I know that the leading officers of the 
Confederacy protested against them ; I know that 
many of the subordinate officers protested against 
them. I know that an honorable gentleman from 
North Carolina, now representing his State in the 
other end of the capitol protested against them. 
But I have searched the records in vain to find 
that the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Hill) pro- 
tested ao^ainst them. 

''They were known to the Confederate Con- 
gress ; they were known at the doorway of your 
Senate and along the corridors of your capitol. 
The honorable and venerable gentleman in my 
eye at this moment, who served in the Confede- 
rate Congress, and who had before ser^^ed in the 
Senate of the United States, himself brought them 
to the attention of the Confederate Congress, and 
I class him with great gladness among those 
whose humanity was never quenched by the nres 
of the rebellion. I allude to the Honorable 
Henrv S. Foote. 

''My time is running and I have but very little 
left. I confess — and I say it to the gentleman from 
Georgia, with no personal unkindness— I confess 
that my very blood boiled, if there was anything 
of tradition, of memory, of feeling, it boiled when 
I heard the gentleman, with his record, which I 
have read, seconded and sustained by the gentle- 
man from New York, arraigning the administration 



FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN lEADERS. 1 69 

of Abraham Lincoln, throwing obloquy and slander 
upon the grave of Edwin M. Stanton, and de- 
manding that Jefferson Davis should be restored 
to full citizenship in this country ! Ah, that is a 
novel spectacle; the gentleman from Georgia 
does not know how novel. The gentleman from 
Georgia does not know, and he cannot know, how 
many hundred thousand of Northern bosoms were 
lacerated by his course. 

'T repeat, that proposition strikes — I might say 
almost terror into Northern hearts ; that here, in 
an American Congress, the gentleman who offered 
that resolution in the Confederate Congress, who 
in his campaign for a seat in this House comes 
here breathing threatenings and slaughter, who 
comes here telHng you that in a certain contin- 
gency he means war, advising his people to be 
ready for it — that gentleman, profaning the very 
altar of patriotic liberty with the speech that sends 
him here, arraigning the administration that con- 
ducted the war and saved the Union — that gentle- 
man asks us to join with him in paying the last full 
measure of honor that an American Cong-ress can 
pay to the arch enemy of the Union, the arch 
fiend of the rebellion. 

" Suppose Jefferson Davis is not pardoned ; 
suppose he is not amnestied. Oh, you cannot 
have a centennial year without that ! No man on 
this side has ever intimated that Jefferson Davis 



I/O 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



should be refused pardon on account of any 
political crimes ; it is too late for that ; it is be- 
cause of a personal crime. If you ask that there 
may be harmonious and universal rejoicing over 
every forgiven man, release all your criminals ; 
set free every man who has been sentenced for 
piracy or for murder by your United States 
Courts ; proclaim the jubilee indeed. 

But I am authorized, if the gentleman desires 
it — not authorized especially to mention it here, 
but I mention it on the authority of General 
Grant, whom the gendeman from Georgia im- 
pugned in connection with the exchange of pris- 
oners — to say that one thing touching the 
exchange of prisoners was that the Davis govern- 
ment observed no honor in regard to it ; and 
General Grant states that the brigade of Carter 
L. Stephenson, that was dislodged at Chattanooga, 
was made up of paroled prisoners from Vicksburg, 
and that Stephenson himself was one of them. 
He states that the paroled prisoners of one day 
in front of his Hne were taken the next. But in 
stating this he was careful to say that, as to Lee 
and the two Johnsons and Pemberton, and the 
other leading Confederate generals, their word 
was honor itself ; but that for the Davis executive 
government there was no honor in it — none what- 
ever. The gentleman has got enough of General 
Grant by this time, I hope. 



FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS. I7I 

*'Now, in regard to the relative number of 
prisoners that died in the North and the South 
respectively, the gentleman undertook to show that 
a great many more prisoners died in the hands of 
the Union authorities than in the hands of the 
rebels. I have had conversations with sureeons 
of the army about that, and they say that there 
were a large number of deaths of rebel prisoners, 
but that during the latter period of the war they 
came into our hands very much exhausted, ill-clad, 
ill-fed, diseased so that they died in our prisons of 
diseases that they brought with them. And one 
eminent surgeon said, without wishing at all to be 
quoted in this debate, that the question was not 
only what was the condition of the prisoners when 
they came to us, but what it was when they were 
sent back. 

''Our men v/ere taken in full health and strength ; 
they came back wasted and worn- — mere skeletons. 
The rebel prisoners, in large numbers, were, when 
taken, emaciated and reduced; and General Grant 
says that at the time, such superhuman efforts 
were made for exchange, there were 90,000 men 
that would have re-enforced your armies the next 
day, prisoners in our hands who were in good 
health and ready for fight. This consideration sheds 
a great deal of light on what the gentleman states. 

*'The gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hurlbut) 
puts a letter into my hands. I read it without 
really knowing what it may show : 



1/2 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



" ' Confederate States of America, 
" *War Department, 
" ' Richmond, Virginia, March 21, 1863. 

*' * My Dear Sir : — If the exigencies of our army require the use of 
trains for transportation of corn, pay no regard to the Yankee prisoners; I 
would rather that they should starve than our ov>^n people suffer. 

'I suppose I can safely put in writing: "Let them suffer." The 
words are memorable, and it is fortunate that in this case they can be ap- 
plied properly and without the intervention of a lying quartermaster. 

i Very truly your faithful friend, 

" ' ROBERT OULD. 

* Colonel A. C. Myers." 

That is a good piece of literature in this con- 
nection. Mr. Ould, I believe, was the rebel 
commissioner to exchange. When the gentleman 
from Georgia next takes the floor I want him to 
state what excuse there was for ordering the 
Florida artillery, in case General Sherman's army 
got within seven miles of Andersonville, to fire on 
that stockade. 

''Why, Mr. Speaker, the administration of 
Martin Van Buren, that went down in a popular 
convulsion in 1840, had no little of obloquy 
thrown upon it because it had ventured to hunt 
the Seminoles in the swamps of Florida with 
bloodhounds. Bloodthirsty dogs were sent 

after the hiding savages, and the civilization of 
the nineteenth century and the Christian feeling 
of the American people revolted at it. And I 
state here, and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Hill) cannot deny it, that upon the testimony of 



FIGHTING THE SOUTHERN LEADERS, 1 73 

witnesses as numerous as would require me all 
day to read, bloodhounds were used ; that large 
packs of them were kept, and Georgia officers 
commanded them ; that they were sent after the 
poor unfortunate, shrinking men who by any acci- 
dent could get out of that horrible stockade. I 
state, sir, that the civilization of the world stands 
aghast at what was done at Andersonville. And 
the man who did that was sustained by Jefferson 
Davis, and promoted. Yet the gentleman says 
that was analogous to General Grant sending 
McDonald to the penitentiary. 

Mr. Speaker, in view of all these facts I have 
only to say that if the American Congress, by a 
two-thirds vote, shall pronounce Jefferson Davis 
worthy to be restored to the full rights of Ameri- 
can citizenship, I can only vote against it and 
hang my head in silence, and regret it." (Ap- 
plause.) 

The result of this debate was a ''draw." But 
Mr. Blaine won enormous prestige by it, and was 
thereafter the idol of the millions who were appre- 
hensive of the returning power of the South and 
were resolved to resist it by all lawful means. 



CHAPTER VII. 



DEALING WITH SLANDER. 

A Carnival of Scandal Hunting — Newspaper Insinuations — Chargvs in 
Congress — Mr. Blaine's Effective Reply — Fresh Accusations — The 
Mulligan Letters — Political Objects of the Investigations — Mr. B'lnine's 
Recovery of the Letters — His Production of Them in the House of 
Representatives — The Suppressed Despatch from Caldwell A 
Dramatic Scene in the House— Mr. Blaine's Triumphant Acquittal at 
the Bar of Public Opinion. 

At the Congressionai elections of NDvember, 
1874, a political revolution was effected. For the 
first time since the outbreak of the War of the 
Rebellion, an overwhelming Democratic majority 
was returned to the House of Representatives. 
Tliat majority immediately set itself to the task 
of investigating the record of the Republicans, 
Vv^ho had held practically undisputed control in all 
branches of the Government for many years. 
Dozens of investigating committees were ap- 
pointed, to pry into all branches of the Adminis- 
tration, and into the personal conduct of all the 
leaders of the Republican party. The era under 
investigation comprised the years of the war and 
the reconstruction period, immediately following. 
This was a time of large and lavish expenditures, 
and unquestionably of considerable looseness and 
174 



DEALING WITH SLANDER. 175 

corruption in various quarters. The numerous 
committees did succeed in exposing some abuses 
and dishonesty, and not a few prominent politicians 
were permanently retired with hopelessly be- 
smirched reputations. But in the great majority 
of instances, the quest of the investigators was 
fruitless. 

The most notable of these investigations, and 
the one which was most productive of results, was 
that into the operations of the Credit Mobilier of ^ 
the Union Pacific Railroad. This had come up 
before, while the Republicans were still in control 
of Congress, and while Mr. Blaine was Speaker 
of the House. Mr. Blaine had himself moved for 
the investigation, for the reason that he had been 
charged with complicity in the corrupt practices. 
The result w^as his most complete exoneration. 
Down to the beginning of 1876, therefore, Mr. 
Blaine's reputation was above reproach and above 
suspicion. But the mania for investigation, and 
for assaults upon character, which now set in, was 
not inclined to spare so conspicuous a mark. He 
was, moreover, a leading candidate for the Presi- 
dency, and popular enthusiasm in his support was 
every day growing more intense. The leaders of 
the opposing party were, therefore, naturally most 
anxious to destroy his prestige, and this could 
most effectually be done, they thought, by fasten- 
ing upon him the odium of some questionable 
or dishonest conduct in public affairs. 



176 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



The campaign against him was begun outside 
of Congress. A not greatly important Western 
newspaper first printed a scandalous attack upon 
him, more in the form of innuendo and suggestion 
than specific indictment. Day by day the attacks 
were continued, constantly growing more definite 
in tone, but constantly hinting at some most as- 
tonishing and damning revelations that would 
presently be made. The gist of the Avhole matter 
seemed to be, not that he had outright stolen 
public money, or committed perjury or forgery, or 
robbed the church poor-box, or murdered his ven- 
erable grandmother, but that he had used his 
official position as Speaker of the House for the 
furtherance of legislation in the interest of certain 
Western railroads, and had, on that account, be- 
come the possessor of stock in those companies, 
on exceptionally favorable terms. Finally the 
matter was brought to the attention of the House 
of Representatives, of which Mr. Blaine was a 
member in the Republican minority, and of w^hich 
the Hon. Michael C. Kerr, of Indiana, a high- 
minded and honorable Democrat, was Speaker. 
The Hon. Proctor Knott, of Kentucky, one of the 
most conspicuous Democratic members, w^as put 
forward as the leader of the investigation into and 
attack upon Mr. Blaine's record. The first im- 
portant passage of arms in the House occurred 
on April 24, 1876, when Mr. Blaine made a pow- 
erful and comprehensive speech, most effectively 



DEALING WITH SLANDER, I// 

disposing of and sweeping away the charges 
against him. These charges were that he had 
received a considerable sum of money from the 
Union Pacific Railroad Company* in reward for 
his official influence in its behalf, and that he had 
similarly received some shares of stock in an 
Arkansas railroad company. Mr. Blaine's speech 
v/as as follows : 

Mr. Speaker, with the leave of the House so 
kindly granted, I shall proceed to submit certain 
facts and correct certain errors personal to myself 
The dates of the correspondence embraced in my 
statement will show that it was impossible for me 
to make it earlier. I shall be as brief as the cir- 
cumstances will permit. For some months past a 
charge against me has been circulating in private 
— and was recently made public— designing to 
show that I had in some indirect manner received 
the large sum of $64,000 from the Union Pacific 
Railroad Company in 1871, for what services or 
for what purpose has never been stated. The 
alleged proofs of the serious accusation were based, 
according to the original story, upon the author- 
ship of E. H. Rollins, treasurer of the Union 
Pacific Company, who, it is averred, had full 
knowledge that I got the money, and also upon 
the authority of Morton, Bliss & Company, 
bankers of New York, through whom the draft 
for $64,000 was said to have been negotiated for 
my benefit, as they confidently knew. Hearing 



1/8 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



of this charge some weeks in advance of its 
publication, I procured the following statement 
from the two principal witnesses, who were quoted 
as having such definite knowledge against me : 

Union Pacific Railroad Company. 

Boston, March 31, 1876. 
** ^Dear Sir : — In response to your inquiry, I beg leave to state that I 
have been treasurer of the Union Pacific Railroad Company since April 8> 
187 1, and have necessarily known of all disbursements made since that 
date. During the entire period up to the present time I am sure that no 
money has been paid in any way or to any person by the company in which 
you were interested in any manner whatever. I make the statement in 
justice to the company, to you, and to myself 

*' * Very respectfully yours, 

" ' B. H. ROLLINS. 

* Hon. James G. Blaine.' 

' New York, April 6, 1876. 
" ^Dear Sir : — In answer to your inquiry, we beg to say that no draft, 
note, or check, or other evidence of value has passed through our books in 
which you were known or supposed to have any interest of any kind, direct 
or indirect. 

" * \Ye remain, ver}' respectfully, your obedient servants, 

" ' MORTON, BLISS & CO. 

" * Hon. James G. Blaine. 

" * Washington, D. C: 

Some persons on reading the letter of Morton, 
Biiss & Company said that its denial seemed to be 
confined to any payment that had passed through 
their books, whereas they mJght have paid a draft 
in which I was interested and yet no entry made of 
it on their books. On the criticism being made 
known to the firm, they at once addressed me the 
following letter : 

"* New York, April 13, 1876. 
" ^Dear Sir : — It has been suggested to us that our letter of the 6th 
instant was not sufficiently inclusive or exclusive. In that letter we stated 



DEALING WITH SLANDER. 



179 



**that no draft, note, cr check, or ottier evidence of value has ever passed 

Jhrough our books in vrhich you were known or supposed to have any 
intertst, direct or indirect." It may be proper for us to add nothing has 
been paid to us in any form, or at any time, to any person or any corporation 
in which you were known, believed, or supposed to have any interest 
whatever. 

We remain, very respectfully, your obedient servants, 

* MORTON, BLISS & CO. 

" * Hon. James G. Blaine, 
" * Washington, D. C. 

'*The two witnesses quoted for the original 
charge having thus effectually disposed of it, the 
charge itself reappeared in another form to this 
effect, namely : That a certain draft was negotiated 
at the house of Morton, Bliss & Company in 1871, 
through Thomas A. Scott, then president of the 
Union Pacific Railroad Com.pany, for the sum of 
$64,000, and that $75,000 of the bonds of the 
Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad Company 
were pledged as collateral ; that the Union Pacific 
Company paid the draft and took up the collateral ; 
that the cash proceeds of it went to me, and that 
i had furnished, or sold, or in some way convey ed 
or transferred to Thomas A. Scott, these Little 
Rock and Fort Smith bonds v^^hich had been used 
as collateral ; that the bonds in reality had be- 
longed to me or some friend or constituent of 
mine for v/hom I was acting. I endeavor to state 
the charge in its boldest form and in all its phases. 

'T desire here and nov/ to declare that all and 
ever}^ part of this story that connects my name 
wdth it, is absolutely untrue, without a particle of 



l3o JAMES G. BLAINE, 

• foundation in fact, and without a tittle of evidence 
to substantiate it. I never had any transaction of 
any kind with Thomas A. Scott concerning bonds 
of the Litde Rock and Fort Smith Road, or the 
bonds of any other railroad, or any business in 
any way connected with railroads, directly or indi- 
rectly, immediately or remotely. I never had any 
business transactions whatever with the Union 
Pacific Railroad Company, or any of its officers 
or agents or representatives, and never, in any 
manner, received from that Company, directly or 
indirectly, a single dollar in money, or stocks, or 
bonds, or any other form of value. And as to 
the particular transaction referred to, I never so 
much as heard of it until nearly two years after 
its alleged occurrence, when it was talked of, at 
the time of the Credit Mobilier investigation, in 
1873. But while my denial ought to be conclusive, 
I should greatly regret to be compelled to leave 
the matter there. I am fortunately able to sustain 
my own declaration by the most conclusive evi- 
dence t^at the case admits of, or that human 
testimony can supply. If any person or persons 
know the truth or falsity of these charges, it must 
be the officers of the Union Pacific Railroad Com- 
pany. I accordingly addressed a note to the 
president of that company, a gentleman who has 
been a director of the company from its organiza- 
tion, I believe, who has a more thorough acquaint- 
ance with its business transactions, probably, than 



DEALING WITH SLANDER. 



any other man. The correspondence, which I 
here submit, will explain itself, and leave nothing 
to be said. I will read these letters in their proper 
order. They need no comment. 

" ^Washington, D. C, April 13, 1876. 
" * Dear Sir ; — You have doubtless observed the scandal now in circula- 
tion in regard to my having been interested in certain bonds of the Little 
Rock and Fort Smith Road, alleged to have been purchased by your com- 
pany in 187 1. It is due to me, I think, that some statement in regard to 
the subject should be made by yourself, as the official head of the Union 
Pacific Railroad Company. 

" ' Very respectfully, 

" ^ J. G. BLAINE. 

" * Sidney Dillon, Esq., 

" * President Union Pacific Railroad Company.' 

" ' Office Union Pacific Railroad Company, 
" * New York, April 15, 1876. 
" * Dear Sir: — I have your favor of the 13th instant, and in reply desire 
to say that I have this day written Colonel Thomas A. Scott, who was 
president of the Union Pacific Company at the time of the transaction 
referred to, a letter, of which I send a copy herewith. On receipt of this 
reply, I will enclose it to you. 

Very respectfully, 

" * SIDNEY DILLON, 

" < President, 

" * Hon. James G. Blaine, 

« * Washington, D. C 

* * ' Office of the Union Pacific Railroad Co., 
" ' New York, April 15, 1876. 
" * Dear Sir : — The press of the country are making allegations that cer- 
tain bonds of the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad Company, in 187 1, 
were obtained from Hon. James G. Blaine, cf Maine, or that the avails, in 
some form, went to his benefit, and that the knowledge of those facts rests 
with the officers of the company and with yourself These statements are 
injurious both to Mr. Blaine and to the Union Pacific Railroad Company. 
There were never any facts to warrant them, and I think that a statement 
to the public is due both from you and myself. I desire, as president of the 
II 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



company, to repel any Sc^ch inference in the most emphatic manner, and 
would be glad to hear from you on the subject. 

" * Very respectfully, 

" * SIDNEY DILLON, 

" ' President, 

« * Col. Thomas A. Scott, 

"'Philadelphia, Pa.' 

" ' Office Union Pacific Railroad Company. 

" * New York, April 22, 1876. 
^Dear Sir : — As I advised you some days ago, I wrote Colonel Thomas 
A. Scott, and beggeci leave to enclose you his reply. I desire further to say 
that I was a director of the company and a member of the executive com- 
mittee in 1 87 1, and to -add my testimony to that of Colonel Scott in verifica- 
tion of all that he has stated in the enclosed letter. 

" * Truly yours, 

" ' SIDNEY DILLON, 
" '•President. 

" * Hon. James G. Blaine, 

" « Washington, D. C 

Philadelphia, April 21, 1876. 
^ My Dear Sir : — I have your letter under date New York, April 15, 
1876, stating that the press of the country are making allegations that certain 
bonds of the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad, purchased by the Union 
Pacific Railroad Company in 1S71, were obtained from Hon. J. G. Blaine, 
of Maine, or that the avails in some form went to his benefit ; that there 
never were any facts to warrant them ; that it is your desire as president of 
the company to repel any such influence in the most emphatic manner, and 
asking me to make a statement in regard to the matter. 

" * In reply, I beg leave to say that much as I dislike the idea of entering 
into any of the controversies that are before the public in these days of 
scandal from which but few men in public life seem to be exempt, I feel it 
my duty to state : 

' That the Little Rock and Fort Smith bonds purchased by the Union 
Pacific Railroad Company in 1 87 1 were not purchased or received from 
Mr. Blaine, directly or indirectly, and that of the money paid by the Union 
Pacific Railroad Company, or of the avails of said bonds, not one dollar 
went to Mr. Blaine or to any person for him, or for his benefit in any form. 

"* All statements to the effect that Mr. Blaine ever had any transactions 
with me, directly or indirectly, involving money or valuables of any kind, 
are absolutely without foundation in fact. 



DEALING WITH SLANDER. 18$ 

" ' I take pleasure in making this statement to you, and you may use it in 
any manner you deem best for the interest of the Union Pacific Railroad 
|_ ompany. 

" ' Very truly yours, 

" ' THOMAS A. SCOTT. 

Sidney Billon, Esq., President, 

Union Pacific Railroad Company, New York.' 

''Let me now, Mr. Speaker, briefly summarizt: 
what I presented : First, that the story of my 
receiving ^64,000 or any other sum of money, or 
anything of vakie, from the Union Pacific Railroad 
CoiPxpany, directly or indirectly, or in any form, is 
absolutely disproved by the miost conclusive testi- 
monv. Second, that no bond of mine was ever 
sold to the Atlantic and Pacific, or the Missouri, 
Kansas and Texas Railroad Company, and that not 
a single dollar of money from either of these 
companies ever went to my profit or benefit. 
Third, that instead of receiving bonds of the Little 
Rock and Fort Smith Road as a gratuity, I never 
had one except at the regular mxarket price ; and 
instead of making a large fortune off that company, 
I have incurred a severe pecuniary loss from my 
investmient in its securities, which I still retain ; 
and out of such affairs as these grows the popular 
gossip of large fortunes am.assed in Congress. I 
can hardly expect, Mr. Speaker, that any statement 
from me will stop the work of those vv^ho have so 
industriously circulated these calummies. For 
months past the en'brt has been energetic and 
continuous to spread these stories in private 



JAMES G, BLAINE. 



circles. Emissaries of slander have visited 
editorial rooms of leading Republican papers 
from Boston to Omaha, and whispered of revela- 
tions to come that were too terrible even to be 
spoken in loud tones, and at last, the revelations 
have been made. I am now, Mr. Speaker, in the 
fourteenth year of a not inactive service in this hall ; 
I have taken and have given blows ; I have no 
doubt said many things in the heat of debate that 
I would gladly recall ; I have no doubt given votes 
which in fuller light I w^ould gladly change ; but I 
have never done anything in my public career for 
which I could be put to the faintest blush in any 
presence, or for which I cannot answer to my 
constituents, my conscience, and the Great 
Searcher of Hearts." 

This speech was considered, by the majority of 
unprejudiced persons, to settle the whole matter 
in Mr. Blaine's favor. His explanations were so 
full and frank as, apparently, to leave nothing 
more to be desired for his entire vindication ao^ainst 
the charges preferred. One of the foremost New 
York journals, Harpers Weekly, which was by no 
means friendly to Mr. Blaine, said, in commenting 
upon his speech and the accusation to which it 
was an answer : 

''If nobody now appears to justify this accusa- 
tion, it must be considered merely one of the 
reckless slanders to which every prominent public 
man is exposed, and no charge that may be 



I)£A/ riVG WITH SLANDER. 



187 



hereafter raacie against Mr. Blaine, unaccompa- 
nied by Aveighty testimony, will deserve any at- 
tention whatever/' 

Nabody who did appear, succeeded in justify- 
ing the accusation. Nevertheless, attacks were 
persistently made upon him, with a relentless 
malice that has seldom been equalled in the history 
of American politics. As the date of the Repub- 
lican National Convention drew nearer, and all 
signs pointed more certainly to the choice of Mr. 
Blaine as its candidate for Presidency, the at 
tacks upon him increased in intensity and virulence. 
On May ist, a leading New York newspaper pub- 
lished a statement to the effect that Mr. Blaine had 
received, as a gift, certain shares in the Kansas 
Pacific Railroad, and it was added that there were 
positive and authentic witnesses to that effect, and 
that, at that very time, he was concerned in a law- 
suit reorardinor the matter, in a Kansas court. Mr. 
Blaine imimediately secured letters from the wit- 
nesses referred to, who were well-known lawyers 
and newspaper correspondents, explicitly denying 
that they had any knowledge of the affair what- 
ever. He also proved, conclusively, that the Mr. 
Blaine who was interested in the Kansas lawsuit, 
was not himself, but his brother, John E. Blaine, 
who had settled in that State many years ago, and 
who had purchased the stock in dispute long be- 
fore James G. Blaine had even been nominated 
for Congress. Thus Mr. Blaine completely refuted 



i88 



JAMES G, BLAINE, 



this second charge against him, conckiding his 
personal explanation in the House as follows : 

''Having now noticed the two charges that 
have been so extensively circulated, I shall refrain 
from calling the attention of the House to any 
others that may be invented. To quote tlve lan- 
guage of another, ' I do not propose to make my 
public life a perpetual and uncomfortable flea-hunt, 
in the vain efforts to run down stories which have 
no basis in truth, which are usually anonymous, 
and whose total refutation brings no punishment 
to those w^ho have been guilty of originating 
them.' " 

Thus far the campaign against Mr. Blaine had 
only succeeded in increasing his popularity and 
his strength as a Presidential candidate. But his 

o 

enemies did not slacken their hostile efforts. On 
the very next day, Mr. Tarbox, of Massachusetts, 
introduced in the House a resolution, calling for 
an investigation of an alleged purchase by the 
Union Pacific Railroad Com.pany of certain bonds 
of the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad Com- 
pany, for a price m^uch greater than their real value. 
The Judiciary Committee, of which Mr. Proctor 
Knott v/as chairman, was instructed to conduct 
the investigation, Mr. Tarbox explicitly declared 
that this resolution vv^as not aimed at Mr. Blaine, 
and thus secured its adoption without objection. 
The moment the comimittee began its work, how- 
ever, it was evident that Mr. Blaine was the one 



DEALING WITH SLANDER, 



person held in view, and the investigation was 
conducted with the sole object of injuring his 
political prospects. He did not complain of the 
investigation. He did demand that it should be 
pushed forward promptly and thoroughly. This 
demand v/as not, however, granted. The investi- 
gation was made to drag along wearily, with the 
evident intention of postponing the final result 
until after the Republican Convention. It was 
reckoned that that body would not nominate Mr. 
Blaine for the Presidency while his conduct was 
actually under official investigation. Newspaper 
reports, connecting Mr, Blaine with certain trans* 
actions of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, 
were taken up, and a third issue against him was 
sought in what was known as the ''Real Estate 
Pool.^' 

The most striking feature of this whole business 
was the bringing forward of som^e of Mr. Blaine's 
private correspondence. Two witnesses, named 
Fisher and Mulligan, v/ere brought on from Bos- 
ton, to tell what they knew. Mulligan had been 
a confidential clerk, and had abstracted from 
among a mass of papers to which he had access 
a number of Mr. Blaine's letters, which were said 
to be fatally incriminating. The lovers of scandal 
at Washington and throughout the country were 
wild with delight at what promised to be a fatal 
blov/ at Mr. Blaine's reputation. Then it was 
suddenly announced that Mr. Blaine had rescued 



JAMES G, BLAINE, 



his letters from the grasp of Mulligan, and now 
had them in his own pocket. This changed the 
aspect of the whole affair. It was thought that he 
had secured the letters in order to prevent their 
contents from being made public. His enemies 
exultantly declared that this was positive proof of 
his guilt, and his friends, for the moment, were 
filled with dismay. The Judiciary Committee im- 
mediately made a demand upon him that he give 
up the letters. This he refused to do, and in sup- 
port of his refusal, produced the opinions of two 
of the most eminent lawyers of the day, ex-Judge 
Black, a Democrat, and the Hon. Matthew H. 
Carpenter, a Republican, to the effect that the 
letters were his own, and that no power could 
rightfully compel him to give them up. The com- 
mittee did not venture to insist further upon their 
demand, nor even to report to the House his 
refusal to surrender the letters. The demand and 
the refusal were, however, known to everybody, 
and the air was filled with innumerable stories of 
the most outrageous character, all hostile to Mr. 
Blaine. The most extravagant statements were 
made concerning the contents of the letters, and 
since Mr. Blaine had refused to let the letters be 
made public, no denial of these charges could be 
made by his friends. 

The 5th of June had now arrived. In a few 
days the National Republican Convention would 
meet at Cincinnati. Mr. Blaine's enemies were 



DEALING WITH SLANDER. I91 

full of exultation, and his friends were equally 
full of doubt and dismay. Neither friends nor 
foes had any idea of the startling stroke which he 
was about to deal. On that day he quietly arose 
in the House of Representatives, and said : Mr. 
Speaker, if the morning hour has expired, I desire 
to speak on a question of privilege/' The 
Speaker pro te77t, replied that the morning hour 
had expired ; whereupon Mr. Blaine proceeded 
as follows : 

''Mr. Speaker, on the second day of May this 
resolution was passed by the House : 

*' 'Whereas, it is publicly alleged, and is not 
denied by the officers of the Union Pacific Rail- 
road Company, that that corporation did, in the 
year 1871 or 1872, become the owner of certain 
bonds of the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad 
Company, for w^hich bonds the said Union Pacific 
Railroad Company paid a consideration largely in 
excess of their market or actual value, and that 
the board of directors of said Union Pacific Rail- 
road Company, though urged, have neglected to 
investigate said transaction ; therefore, 

^ Be it resolved, That the Committee on the 
Judiciary be instructed to inquire if any such 
transaction took place, and, if so, what were the 
circumstances or inducements thereto, from what 
person or persons said bonds were obtained and 
upon what consideration, and whether the trans- 
action was from corrupt design or in furtherance 



ig2 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

of any corrupt object ; and that the committee 
have power to send for persons and papers.' 

''That resolution on its face, and in its fair 
intent, was obviously designed to find out whether 
any improper thing had been done by the Union 
Pacific Railroad Company ; and of course, inci- 
dentally thereto, to find out with whom the trans- 
action was made. 

No sooner was the sub-committee designated 
than it became entirely obvious that the resolution 
was solely and only aimed at me. I think there 
had not been three questions asked until it was 
evident that the investigation was to be a personal 
one upon mie, and that the Union Pacific Railroad, 
or any other incident of the transaction, was 
secondary, insignificant and unimportant. I do 
not complain of that ; I do not say that I had any 
reason to complain of it. If the investiaration 
was to be made in that personal sense, I was 
ready to meet it. 

''The gentleman on whose statement the ac- 
cusation rested v/as fi.rst called. He stated what 
he knew from rumor. Then there were called 
Mr. Rollins, T\Ir. Morton, and Mr. ?\Iillard, from 
Omaha, a Governm.ent director of the Union 
Pacific Road, and finally Thomas A. Scott. The 
testimony was completely and conclusively in 
disproof of the charge that there was any possi- 
bility that I could have had anything to do with 
the transaction. When the fam^ous witness 



DEALING WITH SLANDER, 193 

Mulligan came here loaded with information in re- 

eard to the Fort Sm.ith Road, the o-entlernan from 
Viro-inia drew out what he knew had no reference 
whatever to the question of investigation. He 
then and there insisted on all of my private mem- 
oranda being allowed to be exhibited by that man 
in reference to business that had no more connec- 
tion, no more relation, no more to do with that 
investip-atlon than wlih the North Pole. 

'*And the gentleman tried his best, also, though - 
I believe that has been abandoned, to capture and 
use and control my private correspondence. 
This man has selected, out of correspondence 
running over a great many years, letters which 
he thought would be peculiarly damaging to me. 
He came here loaded with them. He came here 
for a sensation. He came here primed. He came 
here on that particular errand. I was advised of 
it, and 1 obtained those letters under circumstances 
which have been notoriously scattered over the 
United States, and are known to everybody. I 
have them. I claim that I have the entire right to 
those letters, not only by natural right, but by all 
the principles and precedents of lav\', as the man 
who held those letters in possession held them 
wrongfully. The committee that attempted to 
take .those letters from that man, for use against 
m^e, proceeded v/rongfuUy. It proceeded in all 
boldness to a most defiant violation of the ordinary 
private and personal rights which belong to every 



ig^ JAMES G. BLAINE, 

American citizen. I wanted the gentleman from 
Kentucky and the gentleman from Virginia to 
introduce that question upon this floor, but they 

did not do it 

''I stood up and declined, not only on the con- 
clusions of my own mind, but by eminent legal 
advice. I was standing behind the rights which 
belong to every American citizen, and if they 
wanted to treat the question in my person any- 
where in the legislative halls or judicial halls, I 
was ready. Then there went forth everywhere 
the idea and impression that because I vrould not 
permit that man, or any man whom I could prevent 
from holding as a menace over my head my 
private correspondence, there must be in it some- 
thing deadly and destructive to my reputation. I 
would like any gentleman to stand up here and 
tell m.e that he is willino- and readv to have his 
private correspondence scanned over and made 
public for the last eight or ten years. I would 
like any gentleman to say that. Does it imply 
euilt? Does it implv wrona--doinof ? Does it 
imply any sense of weakness that a man will pro- 
tect his private correspondence? No, sir; it is 
the first instinct to do it, and it is the last outrage 
upon any man to violate it. 

''Now, Mr. Speaker, I say that I have defied 
the power of the House to compel me to produce 
these letters. I speak with all respect to this 
House. I know its powers, and I trust I respect 



DEALING WITH SLANDER. 



^95 



them. But I sav that this House has no more 
power to order what shall be done or not done 
with my private correspondence, than it has with 
what I shall do in the nurture and education of my 
children, not a particle. The right is as sacred in 
the one case as it is in the other. Bitt, sir, having 
vindicated that right, standing by it, ready to make 
any sacrifice in defence of it, here and now, if any 
gentleman wants to take issue with me on behalf 
of this House, I am ready for any extremity of 
contest or conflict in behalf of so sacred a right. 
And while I am so, I am not afraid to show the 
letters. Thank God Almighty, I am not ashamed 
to show them. There they are (holding up a 
package of letters). , There is the very original 
package. And with some sense of humiliation, 
with a mortification I do not attempt to conceal, 
with a sense of the outrage which I think any man 
in my position would feel, I invite the confidence 
of forty-four millions of my countrymen, while I 
read those letters from this desk. (Applause.) 

ri: ;^ jj: ^ rj: rj: 

This is the letter in which Mulligan says, and 
puts down in his abstract, that I admitted the sixty- 
four thousand dollar sale of bonds : 

Washington, D. C, April i8, 1872. 
"* My dear Mr. Fisher : — I answered you very hastily last evening, as 
you said you wished fcr sn immediate reply, and perhaps in my hurry I 
did not m^ike myself fully understood. You have been, for some time, 
laboring under a totally erroneous impression in regard to my results in the 
Fort Smith matter. The sales of bonds which you spoke of my making, 



igQ lAMES G. BLAINE. 

and which you seem to have thought were for my own benefit, were entirely 
otherwise. I did not have the money in my possession forty-eight hoiiri> 
but paid it over directly to the parties whom I tried, by every means in my 
power, to protect from loss. I am very sure that you have little idea of the 
labors, the losses, the efforts and the sacrifices I have made within the past 
year to save those innocent persons, who invested on my request, from per- 
sonal lo?s. 

" * And I say to you to-night, that I am immeasurably worse off than if 
I had never touched the Fort Smith matter. The demand you make upon 
me now is one which I am entirely unable to comply with. I cannot doil. 
It is not in my power. You sa.y that necessity knows no law.*' That 
applies to me as well as to you, and when I have reached the point I am 
now at, I simply fail back on that law. You are as well aware as I am, that 
the bonds are due m.e under the contract. Could I have them, I could adjust 
many matters not now in my power, and as long as this and other matters 
remain unadjusted between us, I do not recognize the equity, or the lawful- 
ness, of your calling on me for a partial settlement. I am ready at any 
moment to make a full, fair, comprehensive settlement with you, on the most 
liberal terms. I will not be exacting or captious or critical, but am ready 
and eager to make a broad and generous adjustm^ent with you, and if we 
can't agree ourselves, w^e can select a mutual friend who can easily com- 
promise all points of difference between us. 

" * You will, I trust, see that I am disposed to meet you in a spirit of 
friendly cordiality, and yet v/i'h a sense of self-defence that impels me to be 
frank and expose to you my pecuniary weakness. 

" ' With very 1 ind regards to Mrs. Fisher, I am yours truly, 

"*J. G. ELAINE. 

* W. Fisher, Jr., Esq/ 

''I now pass to a letter dated Augusta, Me., 
October 4, 1869, but I read these letters now 
somewhat in their order. Now to this letter I ask 
the attention of the House. In the March session 
of 1869, the first one at which I was speaker, the 
extra session of the Forty-first Congress, a land 
grant in the State of Arkansas to the Little Rock 
Road was reported. I never remember to have 
heard of the road, until at the last night of the 



DEALING WITH SLANDER. 



197 



session, when it was up here for consideration. 
The gentlemen in Boston with w^hom I had rela- 
tions did not have anything to do with that road 
for nearly three or four months after that time. It 
is in the light of that statement that I desire that 
letter read. 

''In the autumn, six or eight months afterw^ard, 
I was looking over the Globe, probably with some 
curiosity, if not pride, to see the decisions I had 
made the first five weeks I was speaker. I had 
not until then recalled this decision of mine, and 
when I came across it, all the facts came back to 
me fresh, and I wrote this letter : 

(Personal.) 

" 'Augusta, Me., October 4, 1869. 
^ My Dear Sir : — I spoke to you a short time ago about a point of 
interest to your railroad company that occurred at the last session of the 
Congress. 

" * It v/as on the last night of the session, when the bill renewing the 
land grant to the State of Arkansas for the Little Rock Road was reached, 
and Julian, of Indiana, chairman of the Public Lands Committee, and, by 
right, entitled to the floor, attempted to put on the bill as an amendment, 
the Fremont El Paso scheme — a.scheme probably well known to Mr. Cald- 
well. The House was thin, and the lobby in the Fremont interest had the 
thing all set up, and Julian's amendment was likely to prevail if brought to 
a vote. Roots, and the other members from Arkansas, who were doing 
their best for their own bill (to which there seemed to be no objection), were 
in despair, for it was well known that the Senate was hostile to the Fremont 
scheme, and if the Arkansas bill had gone back to the Senate with Julian's 
amendments, the whole thing could have gone on the table and slept the 
sleep of death. 

" * In this dilemma. Roots came to me to know what on earth he could 
do under the rules; for he said it was vital to his constituents that the bill 
should pass. I told him that Julian's amendment was entirely out of order j 
because not germane; but he had not sufficient confidence in his own knowc 
edge of the rules to make the point, but he said General Logan was opposed 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



to the Fremont scheme and would probably make the point. I sent my 
page to General Logan wi'h the suggestion, and he at once made the point, 
I could not do otherwise than sustain it, and so the bill was freed from the mis- 
chievous amendment moved by Julian, and at once passed without objection. 

" *At that time I had never seen Mr. Caldwell, but you can tell him that 
without knowing it, I did him a great favor. 

" * Sincerely yours, 

" ' J. G. BLAINE. 

W. Fisher, Jr., Esq., 
" ' 24 India Street, Boston.* 

''The amendment referred to in that letter will 
be found in The Congressional Globe of the First 
Session of the Forty-first Congress, page 702. 
That was before the Boston persons had ever 
touched the road. 

*i* *1* «x> •i* *i« 

■ wpt *y» »J» •j» •Y* wfw 

There is mentioned in another letter ^6,000 
of land-grant bonds of the Union Pacific Railroad 
for which I stood as only part owner; these were 
only in part mine. As I have started to make a 
personal explanation, I want to make a full ex- 
planation in regard to this matter. Those bonds 
were not mine except in this sense : In 1869, a 
lady who is a member of my family and whose 
financial affairs I have looked after for many years 
— many gentlemen will know to whom I refer 
without my being more explicit— bought, on the 
recommendation of Mr. Hooper, $6,000 in land- 
grant bonds of the Union Pacific Railroad as they 
were issued in 1869. She got them on what was 
called the stockholder s basis ; I think it was a 
very favorable basis on which they distributed 



DEALING WITH SLANDER. 



20I 



the bonds. These $6,000 of land-grant bonds 
were obtained in that way. 

''In 1 87 1, the Union Pacific Railroad Company 
broke down, and these bonds fell so that they 
were worth about forty cents on the dollar. She 
was anxious to make herself safe, and I had so 
much confidence in the Fort Smith land bonds, 
that I proposed to her to make an exchange. The 
six bonds were in my possession, and I had pre- 
viously advanced money to her for certain pur- 
poses, and held a part of these bonds as security 
for that advance. The bonds, in that sense, and 
in that sense only, were mine— that they were 
security for the loan v/hich I had made. They 
were all literally hers ; they were all sold finally 
for her account — not one of them for me. I make 
this statement in order to be perfectly fair. 

I have now read these fifteen letters, the whole 
of them ; the House and the country now know 
all there is in them. They are dated, and they 
correspond precisely with Mulligan's memorandum 
w^ich I have here. 

Hi ❖ Hi 5fi ❖ 

''I do not wish to detain the House, but I have 
one or two more observations to make. The 
specific charge that went to the committee, as it 
affects me, is whether I was a party in interest to 
the $64,000 transaction ; and I submit that up to 
this time there has not been one particle of proof 
before the committee, sustaininof that charore. 

12 



202 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



Gentlemen have said that they heard some- 
body else say, and generally, when that somebody 
else was brought on the stand, it appeared that he 
did not say it at all. Colonel Thomas A. Scott 
swore very positively and distinctly, under the 
most rigid cross-examination, all about it Let 
me call attention to that letter of mine which 
Mulligan says refers to that. I ask your attention, 
gentlemen, as closely as if you were a jury, while 
I show the absurdity of that statement. It is in 
evidence that, with the exception of a small frac- 
tion, the bonds which were sold to parties in 
Maine were first mortgage bonds. It is in evi- 
dence, over and over again, that the bonds which 
went to the Union Pacific Road were land-grant 
bonds. Therefore, it is a moral impossibility that 
the bonds taken up to Maine should have gone to 
the Union Paciflc Railroad. They were of differ- 
ent series, different kinds, different colors, ever)^- 
thing diff'erent, as different as if not issued v/ithin 
a thou and miles of each other. So on its face, 
it is shown that it could not be so. 

''There has not been, I say, one positive piece 
of testimony in amy direction. They sent to 
Arkansas to get some hearsay about bonds. 
They sent to Boston to get some hearsay. Mul- 
ligan was contradicted by Fisher, and Atkins and 
Scott swore directly against him. Morton, of 
Morton, Bliss & Co., never heard my name in the 
matter. Carnegee, who negotiated the note, 



DEALING WITH SLANDER, 



203 



never heard my name in that connection. Rollins 
said it was one of the intangible rumors he spoke 
of as floating in the air. Gentlemen who have 
lived any time in Washington, need not be told 
that intangible rumors get very considerable cir- 
culation here ; and if a man is to be held account- 
able before the bar of public opinion for intangible 
rum.ors, who in the House will stand ? 

''Now, gentlemen, those letters I have read 
were picked out of correspondence extending 
over fifteen years. The man did his worst, the 
very worst he could, out of the most intimate 
business correspondence of my life. I ask, gen- 
tlemen, if any of you, and I ask it with some 
feeling, can stand a severer scrutiny of, or more 
rigid investigation into, your private correspond- 
ence ? That was the worst he could do. 

''There is one piece of testimiony wanting. 
There is but one thing to close the complete circle 
of evidence. There is but one witness Vvhom I 
could not have, to whom the Judiciary Committee, 
taking into account the great and intimate connec- 
tion he had with the transaction, was asked to 
send a cable despatch, and I ask the gentleman 
from Kentucky if that cable despatch was sent 
to him 

Mr. Frye. Who ? 

Mr. Blaine. To Josiah Caldwell. 

Mr. Knott. I will reply to the gentleman that 
Judge Hamton and myself have both endeavored 



204 JAMES G. BLAIXE. 

to cret }>Ir. Caldwell's address, and have not vet 
got it. 

Mr. Blaine. Has the gentleman from Kentucky 
received a despatch from Mr. Caidwel! ? 

Mr. Knott. I aviU explain that directly. 

]\Ir. Blaine. I vrant a categorical answer. 

Mr. Knott. I iiave received a despatch pur- 
porting to be from }dr. Caldwell. 

Mr. Blaine. You did ? 

l\Ir. Knott. How did vou know I o-ot it ? 

Mr. Blaine. \\"nen did vou Q-et it? I want the 
gentleman from Kentucky to answer when he 
got it. 

}ylr. Knott. Answer m.y question first. 

Mr. Blaine. I never heard of it until yesterday. 

INIr. Knott. Hov\' did you hear it ? 

]Mr. Blaine. I heard thai }'ou got a despatch 
last Thursday morning, at eight o'clock, from 
Josiah Caldwell, completely and absolutely ex- 
onerating me from this charge, and you have 
suppressed it. ( Protracted applaixse upon theiioor 
and in the cralleries. ) I want the crentleman to 

O O 

answer. (Af:er a pause, i Does the gentleman 
from Kentucky decline to answer?^ 

"The gentleman f;omi Kentucky in responding 
probably, I think, from what he said, intended to 
convey the idea that I had some illeo^itimate 
knowledo^e of how that despatch was obtained. I 
have had no communication with Jnsiah Caldwell. 
I have had no means cf knowing from the teleojaoh 



DEALING WITH SLANDER, 



205 



office whether the despatch was received. But 
I tell the gentleman from Kentucky that mur- 
der will out, and secrets will leak. And I tell 
the gentleman now, and I am prepared to state to 
this House, that at eight o'clock on last Thursday 
morning, or thereabouts, the gentleman from 
Kentucky received and receipted for a message 
addressed to him from Josiah Caldwell, in London, 
entirely corroborating and substantiating the 
statements of Thomas A. Scott, which he had 
just read in the New York papers, and entirely 
exculpating m.e from the charge which I am bound 
to believe, from the suppression of that report, 
that the gentleman is anxious to fasten upon me.'"' 
(Protracted applause from the floor and galleries.) 

No description can do justice to the tremen- 
dous scene in the House of Representatives at the 
culmination of this address, or to the profound 
impression produced by it throughout the country. 
The House was literally thunderstruck at Mr. 
Blaine's magnificent courage and audacity, as 
well as by his frankness, in thus producing and 
publicly reading the suppressed letters, the very 
letters that the man Mulllo-an had abstracted and 
had brought to Washington with such a prodigious 
flourish of trumpets, the very letters which Mr. 
Blaine had recovered from him and for the time 
being had sternly suppressed, the very letters 
which, while they were suppressed, had been 
advertised by Mr. Blaine's enemies as teeming 



206 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



with indubitable evidence of his guilt. It was 
clear to every fair-minded man, as he read them, 
one by one, that there was not a word in them in 
the least degree reflecdng upon his absolute 
integrity. These letters had been picked, with 
alniost devilish ingenuity, out of a voluminous 
correspondence extending over many years, and 
had been carefully separated from the context of 
correspondence that would explain them and show 
their innocent nature. ^'The man/' said Mr. 
Blaine justly, ''did his worst, the very worst he 
could do.'' But that worst not only fell harmless : 
it rebounded with fatal force against its malicious 
and despicable author. 

The climax of the scene, however, was in the 
direct passage of arms with Mr. Knott. There 
was lacking one witness who could affirmatively 
have proved Mr. Blaine's entire innocence. This 
was Mr. josiah Caldwell, v/ho was then travelling 
in Europe. He possessed exact knowledge of all 
the transactions in question, and was able abund- 
antly to vindicate Mr. Blaine's integrity. Mr. 
Blaine did not know his address, and therefore 
could not communicate Vv^ith him by cable. But 
Mr. Knott had ascertained his address, and had 
communicated with him in hope that his evidence 
would be hostile to Mr. Blaine. It proved to be 
exactly the reverse, and the Judiciary Committee 
thereupon suppressed his despatch. When Mr. 
Blaine asked Mr. Knott if he had not received 



DEALING WITH SLANDER. 20/ 

such a despatch, Mr. Knott endeavored to evade 
the question. But the question, and Mr. Knott's 
evident disinclination to answer it, wrought the 
interest of the Members of the House and the 
spectators in the galleries up to the highest pitch. 

And when, at last, Mr. Blaine, all ablaze wuth 
righteous wrath, strode down the aisle of the 
House, and launched full in the faces of his per- 
secutors the tremendous accusation, ''You have 
received from Josiah Caldwell a despatch com- 
pletely and absolutely exonerating me, and you 
have suppressed it the words, the gesture, 
the expression of the indignant and triumphant 
man on trial, and the confusion of his overwhelmed 
prosecutor, all together formed a dramatic scene 
w^ithout parallel in the history of the House. A 
wild storm of applause broke from the floor and 
the galleries, which the presiding officer was pow- 
erless to quell. All the proceedings that followed 
were merely perfunctory. That one supreme 
moment settled the controversy. Thereafter Mr. 
Blaine's enemies growled and carped against him 
in impotent rage. The verdict of the Committee 
was a neorative one, instead of the affirmative 
acquittal to which Mr. Blaine was evidently en- 
titled. But the unanimous verdict of unprejudiced 
public opinion was overwhelmingly, affirmatively 
and enthusiastically in Mr. Blaine's favor. The 
envenomed attacks upon Mr. Blaine, wath which 
the press had teemed, were now rivalled by the 



2o8 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

ridicule, contempt and denunciation that" were 
poured upon Knott and Mulligan. And while 
Mr. Blaine failed to receive the Presidential nomi- 
nation at Cincinnati, he had the satisfaction of 
securing, at Washington, such a vindication as few 
public men under serious charges have ever 
enjoyed, and of bringing upon his enemies a con- 
fusion, a confutation, and a dishonor, from which 
they have never recovered. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE SENATOR. 

A. Prominent Position Quicklj Taken in tke Upper Chamber — Opposition 
to the Electoral Commission and to the Southern Surrender Policy of 
President Hayes — Discussion of the Southern Elections Question — 
Opposition to the Bland Silver Bill — Restriction of Chinese Immigra- 
tion — Defeating a Democratic Conspiracy in Maine — The Shipping 
Interests of the Nation. 

Senator Morrill, of Maine, resigned his place in 
Congress in July, 1876, in order to become Sec- 
retary of the Treasury, and on the tenth of that 
month the Governor appointed Mr. Blaine to suc- 
ceed him in the Senate. There were many among 
his friends who at first regretted this transfer of the 
brilliant Representative to the Upper House. In 
his old place he v/as the unrivalled leader of his 
party, and his talents shone their brightest in the 
fierce battles that raged in the popular assembly. 
But in the more conservative and dignified Senate, 
it was thought, he would be at a disadvantage. 
His dashing style would be out of place there, 
and he would be outranked and cast into the 
shade by the accomplished statesmen who held 
sway there. 

But they were ill-advised who had such fears. 
They underrated their man. They failed to do 
justice to his versatility, and to the substantial 
209 



210 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



foundation of thorough scholarship that underlay 
the dazzling superstructure of his popular fame. 
And they were soon undeceiv*ed. Mr. Blaine did 
not wait long before he showed himself the pos- 
sessor of a full degree of Senatorial dignity, and 
compelled doubters and critics to recognize in 
himi a statesman as sagacious as he was brilliant, 
and well v/orthy to rank among the greatest of 
those who have made the Senate of the United 
States illustrious. 

There is an unwritten law of the Senate that 
requires a new member to remain for a time in 
the background ; perhaps seen, but surely not 
heard. He must sit at the feet of his elders and 
learn of them., before he may rise and take part 
in the grave deliberations of that august body. 
Mr. Blaine did not heed this rule. He did not 
make haste to place himself conspicuously before 
the Senate. But the moment there was need of 
him., the moment his duty to his country prompted 
him to participate in debate, he did so without 
hesitation. He spoke, moreover, not as a nov- 
ice, but as an ''old Parliamentary hand." His 
air was that of a Senator of more years' service 
than he had seen weeks. And so did he acquit 
himself, with such modesty, yet authority, with 
such force, yet dignity, that his appearance was 
welcomed by even the greatest sticklers for prece- 
dent, and he was at once recoo-nized as a leader in 
the Senate, as he had been in the House. 



THE SENATOR, 



211 



One striking episode of his Senatorial career is 
treated ia a separate chapter — his participation 
in the deadlock debate over the President's right 
to employ the army to keep the peace and to 
enforce the laws at the polls when a Federal 
election was in progress. During his service in 
the Senate many important measures came before 
that House for consideration, and upon the--mall 
he expressed himself with his accustomed frank- 
ness and force. 

When the famous dispute arose over the count- 
ing of the electoral votes for President and Vice- 
President, he was a steadfast believer in the 
rightful triumph of the Repubhcan candidates. 
He looked with pronounced disfavor, however, 
upon the Electoral Commission, as a device not 
Avarranted by the Constitution, and beyond the 
authority of Congress to create. ''lam not pre- 
pared,'' he said, ''to vest any body of men with 
the tremendous power vvhich this bill gives to 
fourteen gentlemen, four of whom are to com- 
plete their number by selecting a fifteenth. I do 
not believe that Congress itself has the power 
which it proposes to confer on these fifteen gen- 
tlemen." The bill establishine the Electoral 
Commission was, however, adopted and Mr. 
Blaine cordially concurred in the result. 

He was in general a supporter of the adminis- 
tration of President Hayes, but he strongly dis- 
approved its policy in recognizing the Democratic 



212 JAMES G, BLAIXE. 

State Governments in South Carolina and Lou- 
isiana in the spring of 1S77. Inhis view of the 
case, that was a surrender of the rights of the 
majority to the demands of an aggressive and 
law-defying minority. On this subject he spoke 
more than once in the Senate in no uncertain 
tones. In December, 1S7S. he brought forward 
and supported in a powerful speech a resolution 
which had the two- fold purpose of placing on 
record, in a dennite and authentic form, the frauds 
and outrao;es bv which some recent elections had 
been carried by the Democratic party in the 
Southern States, and of nndino; if there were anv 
method bv ion of these crimes 

against a free ballot might be prevented, ''We 
know," he said, ''that one hundred and six Rep- 
resentatives in ConoTess were recentlv chosen in 
the States formerly slave holding, and that the 
Democrats elected one hundred and one, or pos- 
sibly one hundred and two, and the Republicans 
four, or possibly five. W'e know that thirty-five 
of these Represenratives were assigned to the 
Southern States by reason of the colored popula- 
tion, and that the entire polidcal power thu^ found- 
ed on the numbers of the colored people has 
been seized and appropriated to the aggrandize- 
ment of its own strene;'th by the Democratic party 
of the South. 

The issue thus raised before the country is 
not one of mere sentiment for tiie rights of the 



THE SENATOR. 



213 



negro ; though far distant be the day when the 
rights of any American citizen, however black or 
however poor, shall form the mere dust of the 
balance in any controversy ; nor is the issue one 
that involves the waving of the 'bloody shirt', to 
quote the elegant vernacular of Democratic vitu- 
peration ; nor still further is the issue only a ques- 
tion of the equality of the black voter of the South 
with the white voter of the South. The issue has 
taken a far wider range, one of portentous magni- 
tude, and that is, w^hether the white voter of the 
North shall be equal to the w^hite voter of the 
South in shaping the policy and fixing the destiny 
of this country. 

Let me illustrate my meaning. South Caro- 
lina, Mississippi and Louisiana send seventeen 
Representatives to Congress. Their aggregate 
population^is 1,035,000 whites and 1,224,000 col- 
ored. Of the seventeen Representatives, nine 
w^ere apportioned to these States by reason of 
their colored population and only eight by reason 
of their white population ; and yet in the choice 
of the entire seventeen Representatives, the col- 
ored voters had no more voice or powder than 
their remote kindred on the shores of Senegam- 
bia. In contrast, take two States in the North, 
Iowa and Wisconsin, with seventeen Representa- 
tives. They have a w^hite population of 2,247,- 
000, considerably more than double the entire 
white population of the three Southern States I 



214 JAMES G. BLAIXE. 

have named. In lovra and Wisconsin, therefore, 
it takes 132,000 white population to send a Rep- 
resentative to Congress, but in South Carohna. 
Mississippi and Louisiana every 60,000 white 
people send a Representative. In other words, 
60,000 Avhite people in the Southern States have 
precisely the same political power in the govern- 
ment of the country that 132.000 white people 
have in the North. In levying every tax, there- 
fore, in making every appropriation of money, 
in fixing every line of public policy, in decreeing 
what shall be the fate and fortune of the Republic, 
the Confederate soldier South is enabled to cast 
a vote that is tvrice as powerful and twice as in- 
fluential as the vote of the Union soldier 
North. The white men of the South did not 
acquire and do not hold this superior povver by 
reason of law or justice, but in disregard and de- 
fiance of both. 

''The seizure of this power is wanton usurpa- 
tion ; it is ilagrant outrage ; it is violent perver- 
sion of the whole theory of Republican govern- 
ment. And this injustice is wholly unprovoked. 

But v.^henever a protest is made against 
such injustice, the response we get. comes to us 
in the form of a taunt, 'What are vou o-oinof to do 
about it?' and 'How do you propose to help 
yourseh ?' This is the stereotyped answer of de- 
fiance which intrenched Wrong always gives to 
inquiring Justice ; and those vho imagine it to be 



THE SENATOR. 



215 



conclusive do not know the temper of the Ameri- 
can people. " 

Early in his Senatorial career the currency 
question, which he had already discussed in the 
House, came up. The Senate had under con- 
sideration the bill originated by Mr. Bland in the 
House of Representatives, providing for the 
coinage of silver dollars of 41 2^ grains, the same 
to be legal tender. To this measure Mr. Blaine 
expressed strong opposition, although many of 
his party associates favored it. He argued that 
it was grossly unjust to coin a dollar of such a 
weight, containing only 90 or 92 cents' worth of 
silver, and make it a legal tender for debts con- 
tracted to be paid in dollars of 100 cents. Seeing 
that the bill v/as bound to pass, he strove to 
amend it so as to provide for a dollar of 425^ 
grains. Speaking in support of this am.endment 
he said : We hear it proclaimed that the people 
demand cheap money. I deny it. The people 
do not demand cheap money. They demand an 
abundance of good money, which is an entirely 
different thing. They do not want a sinorle gold 
standard, that will exclude silver and benefit those 
already rich. They do not want an inferior silver 
standard, that will drive out gold and not help 
those already poor. They want both metals, in 
full value, in equal honor." 

Mr. Blaine's amendment was rejected and the 
bill in its original form was passed. The President 



2l6 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



vetoed it, on the very grounds expressed by 

Mr. Blaine in his speeches against it. But Con- 
gress passed the bill over the President's veto 
and it became a lavr. 

x-\ third question on which Mr. Blaine took 
pronounced and conspicuous ground in the Senate 
was that of limitino- Chinese immio^ration. About 
1S77, agitation of this matter assumed in Cali- 
fornia a violent form. Mass meetino^s were held 
frequenth' in San Francisco and elsewhere, at 
which the Chinese were bitterly denounced and a 
demand was made for their exclusion from the 
countr}'. It was found that no action by the State 
would be sufhcient to attain this object,, and the 
voice of the people called to Congress for relief. 
A bill was accordingly introduced restricting the 
number of Chhiese passengers on any one incom- 
ino; vessel to fifteen. To this rheasure ]Mr. Blaine 
gave hearty support although he was at first 
sharply criticised for so doing by many of his 
warmest friends in New En-Mand and the Middle 
States. Speaking on this subject, in February-, 
1879, said : 

Ought we to exclude them ? The question 
lies in mv mind thus : Either the Ano;lo-Saxon 
race w^ill possess the Pacific coast, or the Mongo- 
lians w^ill possess it. You give them the start to- 
day, with the keen thrust of necessity behind 
them, and with the ease of transportation before 
them, and it is entirely inevitable that they will 




SENATOR GEO. F. EDMUNDS. 



i 



THE SENATOR. 



219 



occupy that great space of countiy between the 
Sierras and the Pacific coast. The immigrants 
that come to us from all portions of Europe come 
here with the idea of the family as such engraven 
on their minds and in their customs and in their 
habits, as we have it. The Asiatic cannot go on 
with our population and make a homogeneous 
element. The idea of comparing European 
immigration with an immigration that has no re- 
gard for family, that does not recognize the rela- 
tion of husband and wife, that does not observe 
the tie of parent and child, that does not have in 
the slightest degree the ennobling and civilizing 
influences of the hearthstone and the fireside! 
There is not a peasant's cottage inhabited by a 
Chinaman; there is not a hearthstone, in the 
sense we understand it. There is not a domestic 
fireside in that sense. 

I have heard a great deal about their cheap 
labor. I do not myself believe in cheap labor. I 
do not believe that cheap labor should be an 
object of legislation. There is not a laborer on 
the Pacific coast to-day who does not feel 
wounded and grieved and crushed by the com- 
petition that comes from this source. It is 
servile labor. It is not free labor such as we in- 
tend to develop and encourage and build up in 
this country. It is labor that comes here under a 
mortgage. W e can choose here to-day whether 
our legislation shall be in the interest of the 



220 



JAMES G, BLAINE. 



American free laborer or of the servile laborer 
from China/' 

The bill which Mr. Blaine thus advocated was 
passed by both Houses of Congress, but was 
vetoed by President Hayes on the ground that it 
was a violation of treaty obligations. A few 
years later another and still more rigorous bill 
was introduced and adopted, but Mr. Blaine was 
not then in the Senate. 

The attitude taken by Mr. Blaine in advocacy 
of the protective tariff system is fully set forth 
elsewhere. One other striking incident of his 
Senatorial career, although not directly pertain- 
ing to the business of that House, occurred in the 
winter of 1879 and 1880. The State election in 
Maine in the fall of 1879 was bitterly contested 
and the result v/as very close. There was no 
reasonable doubt, however, that the Republicans 
had won. But the Democrats, who had for the 
preceding year had possession of the State Gov- 
ernment, expressed the determination to continue 
in office. They based their claim to do so on 
certain alleged defective returns. Their attempt 
might have been successful, had not Mr. Blaine, 
with characteristic promptness and firmness, set 
on foot active measures to defeat it. He made 
at his home in Augusta an indignant speech, de- 
nouncing the Democratic plot in unsparing terms. 
In the end the Democrats were compelled to 
abandon their unlawful position and to surrender 



THE SENATOR. 



221 



the State government to the rightfully-elected 
Republican officers. It was recognized that this 
result was due almost entirely to Mr. Blaine's 
endeavors, and thus a great addition was made to 
the debt of gratitude which the people of Maine 
already owed to him. 

Mr. Blaine also distinguished himself in the 
Senate by his advocacy of measures for the bene- 
fit of American commercial and shipping interests, 
making several important speeches on the sub- 
ject. At the expiration of the fragmentary term 
for which he was appointed, he was elected by 
the Maine Legislature for another full term. He 
did not serve during the whole of the latter, how- 
ever, being summoned in 1881 to anotlier posi- 
tion, in the Executive Department of the Gov- 
ernment 



CHAPTER IX. 



NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 

The Congressional Deadlock and Political Debate of May, 1879 — The 
Question of Slate Rights versus National Soverignty at Issue — Ad- 
dresses by Great Party Leaders — Senator Eaton's Presentation of the 
Democratic Side — Mr. Blaine's Reply — Full Text of his Masterly 
Oration. 

The Spring of 1879 was marked in Congress 
by a long and bitter political struggle. The 
Democrats had a majority in each House, while 
a Republican, Mr. Hayes, was in the Presidential 
chair. A strong effort was made by the Demo- 
crats, under the lead chiefly of Southern mem- 
bers, formerly identified with the Rebellion, to 
enact legislation impairing the authority of the 
Federal Government in electoral matters. A bill 
was passed forbidding the use of United States 
troops to preserve the peace or for any other pur- 
pose at the polls. This was so framed as to de- 
stroy the right of the Federal Government to 
maintain its own lawful authority, which it had 
exercised without question for a hundred years. 
The President promptly vetoed this measure on 
constitutional grounds ; whereupon the Demo- 
crats threatened to withhold the appropriations 
necessary for the conduct of the government. 
Thus a deadlock ensued, the Republican minority 



NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY, 223 

Standing firmly by the President and preventing 
the passage of the bill over his veto. There was 
a long and acrimonious debate, in which the whole 
question of State Rights and National Sovereign- 
ty was discussed. Senator Conkling, Senator 
Edmunds and others made important speeches 
on the Republican side, and Senator Hill, Senator 
Hampton and others upheld the Democratic side. 

Conspicuous among the Democratic leaders 
was Senator Eaton, of Connecticut. Early in the 
debate it was announced that he would presently 
make a great speech, which would cover the Re- 
publican leaders with confusion, and which would 
especially disconcert Mr. Blaine. This announce- 
ment was fulfilled on May i6th, so far as Mr. 
Eaton was able to fulfil it. He made on that day 
an eloquent speech, in which he made perhaps 
the best presentation of the Democratic side of 
the case that was heard during the debate. But 
he did not make the pointed and vigorous attack 
upon Mr. Blaine which had been expected. An 
immediate reply was made by Senator ConkHng, 
and it scarcely seemed necessary for Senator 
Blaine to take any especial notice of Mr. Eaton's 
remarks. He decided to do so, however, and 
announcement was made that he would speak to 
the question on May 19th. On that date a crowded 
and distinguished audience gathered in the Senate 
Chamber to hear him ; and it was not disap- 
pointed. He traversed in a most effective manner 



the whole orround of the debate, addressinof 
himself not only to the answering of Senator 
Eaton, but Senator Hill, Senator Bayard and 
Senator Hampton as well. Historical argu- 
ments had entered largely into the debate, and 
on this orround Mr. Blaine showed himself to be 
entirely at home. The familiarity with political 
and constitutional history which he displayed de- 
lighted his friends and dismayed his enemies, 
while it astonished both. And when he took his 
seat, it was felt on both sides that no further dis- 
cussion could, after his address, adduce any new 
fact or argument of importance in behalf of the 
National cause. 

Mr. Blaine's speech on this occasion is here re- 
produced in full, as an essential part of the stir- 
ring political history of those times, and as a com- 
plete expression of his views on a constitutional 
question of the greatest importance. 

Mr. President : Whether the honorable Sena- 
tor from Connecticut (Mr. Eaton) or myself should 
the more correctly remember a quotation from 
Mr. Webster s speeches is a matter of very 
small personal consequence, and of no public im- 
portance whatever. It is not, therefore, with any 
intention of indicating a better memory or a more 
accurate quotation that I refer to this subject ; but 
it is because there has been a labored and per- 
sistent attempt, in which I am sorry the Senator 
from Connecticut has taken part, to misrepresent 



NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 



225 



Mr. Webster and declare that near the close of 
his life and at the end of his political career he 
changed his views, and that he had somewhere to 
some public assemblage practically retracted the 
great arguments he had made against the State- 
rights heresies and in behalf of the Constitution 
and the Union. The honorable Senator from 
Connecticut on the occasion to which he has him- 
self made reference spoke thus : ''I said that 
Mr. Webster called this ' a confederacy of States.' 
I say he called it not only a confederacy of States, 
but g. confederation of States.'' 

Further down, during a little colloquy between 
the Senator and myself, he said : 'When he 
reads a few words from a certain speech of Mr. 
Webster, does the honorable Senator from Maine 
undertake to assert on this floor that Mr. Web- 
ster did not again and again call this government 
not only a confederation of States but a compact 
between States ? I say he did." 

Further on the Senator said : When the 
proper time arrives — I have not the library of Mr. 
Webster in my pocket, I do not carry it around 
with me (laughter) — when the proper time arrives 
I will show that Mr. Webster called this a con- 
federacy and the Constitution a compact." 

The honorable Senator came into the Senate 
on Friday last and very fully and magnanimously 
admitted that he had not been able to find, any- 
where, in Mr. Webster's speeches, that he had 



220 



James g. blaine. 



called this government a ''confederacy of States,'^ 
but he was very sure he had called it a com- 
pact and a compact between the States." 
Let me read what the honorable Senator said : 
*' In 185 1, in his celebrated Capon Springs speech, 
the language of Mr. Webster admits of no dis- 
pute. Whatever he may have said on other 
occasions, whatever he said in his great discus- 
sion on the floor of the Senate with Mr. Hayne or 
with Mr. Calhoun, on the occasion of this speech, 
in the most unqualified manner he asserted the 
fact for which I contend, that the Constitution is a 
compact between parties competent to enter into 
a compact, to wit, the States." 

The honorable Senator held in his hand at that 
time a very mischievous book, and I may say he 
derived his facts, if not his inspiration, from that 
book, which I have now before me. It is a book 
written by a gentleman of great influence in the 
Southern country, of acknowledged ability, of 
long and eminent service in the public councils — 
Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia. It is, 
as I have said, a mischievous book. It is mis> 
chievous in its title, it is mischievous in its pre^ 
face, it is mischievous in every word from the 
opening to the closing chapter ; and it is mischiev- 
ous because, although a sincere man himself, 1 
believe it is an elaborate tissue of absolute mis- 
representations, and misrepresentations from a 
sincere man are much more mischievous than 



N-ATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY, 



227 



misrepresentations from one who designs to mis- 
represent. 

In this book, which the honorable Senator from 
Connecticut then held in his hand, Mr. Stephens 
takes the ground that Mr. Webster had recanted 
and changed his views in reo-ard to the nature of 
our government. On the four hundred and third 
page of the first volume he says : But besides 
all this, as a further proof of Mr. Webster's 
chancre of views as to the Constitution beinor a 
compact between the States, I cite you to a later 
speech made by him at Capon Springs, in Vir- 
ginia, on the 28th of June, 185 1.'' 

And he quotes then Vv^hat the Senator from 
Connecticut quoted. Then Mr. Stephens says : 
" In this speech Mr. Webster distinctly held that 
the Union was a union of States. That the Union 
was founded upon a compact." 

Further on Mr. Stephens says: ''I did not 
agree with him (Mr. Webster) in his expo- 
sition of the Constitution in 1833, but I did 
fully and cordially agree with him in his expo- 
sition in 1839 and 1851. According to that, 
the Constitution was and is a compact between 
the States.'' 

And in the ingenious attempt to justify the 
secession that took place in 1861, handing it down 
to posterity in a history entitled The War 
between the States,'' instead of a rebellion against 
the Government, Mr. Stephens endeavors to 



enlist Mr. Webster as one of the witnesses that 
justified that hne of proceeding-. 

Mr. President, mere definition is not a matter on 
which time can be pr r-fiti'dy snent, much less on 
the rhetorical use of a word. W'nen a man sneaks 
of a compact " rhetorica'/nc vfinen he speaks of a 

continental empire rhetc-icaiiy, or when he 
speaks of an " imperial repuoiic " rhetorically, or 
when, like the Senator from Connecticut, he 
speaks of a " representative republic of sovereign 
States/' I do net erieeit to hold hhti very closely 
to the line of the definition : and if it were a mere 
matter of words as t j h?'u th's man cr that man 
happened in a piece of pnriic dedamatim to de- 
fine the nature of the G :'rerniu-nt. it wiuiJ not 
be worth while here tosrend the time of the 
Senate uuon it. But the honorable Senatir from 
Connecticut knows, and all with whom he is asso- 
ciated in the political rc:-:lutl:n n jw attentrted 
in this country know, thnt upon the line cf dhris- 
ion in\'olved in these words is wa^ed the contest 
between the tvro great parties that are contend- 
ino; for masterv in this ccnintr\- ; that here is in- 
volved the true c:uis:ru:u:m under which this 
government is to be administered — ^whether the 
Government of the United States shall ha^'e the 
power to uphold itself or v:h-=::':.^r It shad lie the 
mere creature of the States, h . in^ and li rrathu:^: 
and moving at their w^ill and pleasure. On 
that line the two parties in this country divide ; and 



NATIONAL ^OVEkETGNTy, 



22g 



I have never known a more extraordinary at- 
tempt- — I will not say disingenuous, for that 
would imply motive — I have never known a 
more extraordinary attempt to twist or turn or 
confound distinctions than the attempt to make 
Mr. Webster's speech at Gapon Springs the basis 
on which this revelation of his change of view 
should be estabUshed. Both Mr. Stephens in his 
history and the honorable Senator from Connecti- 
cut in his speech quoted from a pamiphlet copy of 
Mr. Webster's Capon Springs address. I thought 
I discovered when the honorable Senator was 
speaking, that he was not especially familiar with 
the writings of Mr. Webster. I hope he will not 
think me scant in courtesy if I say that I have 
discovered still less familiarity now, because he 
need not have gone to Mr. Stephens's history to 
get these extracts nor need he have referred to 
lost pamphlets, containing the whole speech, for 
here in the authentic life of \\r. Webster, the 
biography to which Mr. Webster's friends are 
willing to trust his fame, his life by George T. 
Curtis, the speech is given in full. And just 
after that speech was delivered this same de- 
lusion which the Senator from Connecticut indi- 
cates went all over the South. It was everywhere 
heralded in the South that Mr. Webster had de- 
fined the Union as ''a compact," and here is what 
his eminent biographer says in regard to the 
report : — 



230 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



What Mr. Webster had said at Capon Springs, 
in speaking of one of the compacts or compro- 
mises between the Northern and Southern sections 
of the Union, on which the Constitution was 
founded, was at once misrepresented, especially 
in North CaroUna" (there was an important elec- 
tion pending in that State at the time, I believe), 
''as a confirmation by him of the doctrine that 
the Constitution itself is a compact between 
sovereign States, and as drawing after it, as a re- 
sulting right, the right of State secession from 
the Union. A citizen of North Carolina accord- 
ingly wrote to Mr. Webster on this subject, and 
received from him the following answer, which 
was im^mediately made public." 

I will not read the whole of it, but Mr. Webster 
says, speaking of the government : ''It is not a 
limited confederation, but a government ; and it 
proceeds upon the idea that it is to be perpetual, 
like other forma of government, subject only to 
be dissolved by revolution. What I said at Capon 
Springs was an argument addressed to the North, 
and intended to convince the North that if, by its 
superiority of numbers, it should defeat the oper- 
ation of a plain, undoubted and undeniable in- 
junction of the Constitution, intended for the 
especial protection of the South, such a pro- 
ceeding must necessarily end in the breaking 
up of the government ; that is to say, in a revo- 
lution.'' 



NATIONAl SOJ'EREIGN'Tl. 23 I 

Here is what Mr. Webster, in the speech itself, 
said in reviewing the condition of pubHc sentiment 
then threatening, as it afterward broke out in 
revolution; and here is what Mr. Stephens is careful 
not to quote, and what, therefore, my honorable 
friend in his speech could not have been expected 
to quote. Mr. Webster, in referring to the dis- 
union movement found in the South, the State- 
rights movement then running all over the South, 
said : 

*'I make no argument against resolutions, con- 
ventions, secession speeches, or proclamations. 
Let these things go on. The whole matter, it is 
to be hoped, will blow over, and men will return 
to a sounder mode of thinking. But one thing'' 
(and this is put in italics here, as it was in the 
Natio7tal Intelligencer, which was Mr. Webster's 
immediate organ in those days), \'But 07ie thi7tg, 
gentlemen, be assured of, the first step taken in 
the programme of secession, which shall be an 
actual infringement of the Constitution or the 
laws, will be promptly met. (Great applause.) 
And I would not remain an hour in any adminis- 
tration that should not immediately meet any such 
violation of the Constitution and the law effect- 
ually and at ©nee. (Prolonged applause.)" 

Mr. Stephens does not quote that. But, Mr. 
President, how absurd, how unjust, is the idea of 
going around and catching up a chance speech at 
a watering-place in order to convince a certain 



:;2 ja:-:es c-. 3LAi:rz. 

s^ciion of this country which drifted into war in 
suooort of a bad theoiw, and which is drifting 
back into that theor\- as fast as :: can ! How ab- 
as the co::c';;5:ve consihurional c^:':h.:::5 <: : Mr. 
M'cbsrcr. when Mr. VM-rer h:n:^5e:f ha:. M:': in 



the very last year cf h.s h:h, ar. :! a:Vrr th:: s: rt:h 
was dth^-erci. six \- w"awes of his works, on which 
he desired to go dov;n to posterity, on which he 
rested his iame, and on wh':h heinscr::ea :brmal 
introductions: from v,wi:n I cuj:e the f: ii : vdng : 
" Tne principles and opmicns expressea m tnese 
productions are such as I beiieve to be essenriai 
to the presen-ation of the Union, the n:ain:rnan:e 
of the Conshru:' : n. and the ad:'an:enient of the 
countr}' to stiii higher stages of r r C'S-; eriry and 
renovxn Th^se o:;e::s have consnv::ed my 
p:var star during the whide of my p:ii:i:al hfe, 

the period of the existence of the ^'^'.-ernment/' 
On these speeches, cehvered by Mr. Webster, 
in the Senate and in the House and cn grout vub- 
hc occasions, r-'/ised hy himseif pubiishru uniier 
his auspices, he commi::e:i himself tj hismvy; 
and from these neither Mr. Smchens, in ius mis- 
chievous histor\'. nor the h^niramr Senamr fr^m 
Connecticut affects to cuwr anythmg a: all. You 
can hardiy m rn a solitary page in the whole six 
volumes that does not contain a smmthng refutation 



NA TIONAL SO VEREIGNTY, 



of all the theories that they now pretend Mr. 
Webster had admitted in the closing days of his 
life. Let me pick out one instance at random. 

In some very brief remarks that I made the 
other afternoon, when the bill was about to be 
voted upon which the President vetoed, I stated 
that the Democratic party of to-day as represented 
In this chamber were the followers of the State- 
rights school of Democracy represented by Mr. 
Calhoun and Mr. Breckinridge. I believe I was 
correct in stating that ; I believe I was quite 
within the facts. I read now from Mr. Calhoun's 
own definition in his celebrated discussion with 
Mr. Webster, and I think the resolution exactly 
fits and fills the idea of the Senator from Connec- 
ticut as to the true theory of this Government, if 
I understood him aright. Mr. Calhoun submitted 
the following : Resolved, That the people of the 
several States composing these United States are 
united as parties to a constitutional compact, to 
which the people of each State acceded as a sepa- 
rate sovereign community, each binding itself by 
its own particular ratification ; and that the Union, 
of which the said compact is the bond, is a Union 
between the States ratifying the same.'' 

That is the Democratic theory to-day. I doubt 
if there is a Senator on the other side of the 
chamber \<i\\o will controvert these words of Mr. 
Calhoun ; the Senator from Connecticut asserts 
the same doctrine in terms, Mr. Calhoun then 



2-j^_ JAMES G. BLAIXE. 

eoes on in a lono' series of resolutions controvert? 

the idea that we constitute a nation. In an^ 
swer, Mr. Webster, after an elaborate speech, 
sums up and sa)'s : '' And now, sir, against all 
these theories and opinions, I maintain, first : That 
the Constitution of the United States is not a 
leagv.e. confederacy or compact between the peo- 
ple of the several States in their sovereign capa- 
cities, bi:t a Go\'ernment proper, founded on the 
adoption of the people, and creating direct rela- 
tions betv/een itself and individuals." 

I know vou will not c-et tired hearino- Mr. \Veb- 
ster. I am making a very good speech out of his 
works, far better than anvthino- 1 could sav mvself. 
The honorable Senator dwelt at lencrth, and 
dwelt v-i:h that m.odest form of affirmation which 
sometimes distinguishes his utterances, upon the 
idea that no man could deny that it was the States 
that f?rmrd the Constitution, and he quoted as 
conclush/e on that noint the provision that it 
should g-:^ into ekect upon the ratihcation of nine 
States. Mr. Webster, in his second speech on 
Foo:.e's resolution, spoke thus : "Sir, the opinion 
which the honorah^le gentleman (Mr. Calhoun i 
maintains is a nc^tion founded in a total misappre- 
hension, in my iudgment. of the origin of this 
Government, and of the foundation on which it 
stands. I hold it to be a popular Government, 
erected by the p-eople : those who administer it, 
responsible to the people : and itself capable of 



ROBERT T. LINCOLN. 



NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY, 



being amended and modified, just as the people 
may choose it should be. It is as popular, just as 
truly emanating from the people, as the State 
governments. It is created for one purpose ; the 
State governments for another. It has its own 
powers ; they have theirs." And then Mr. Web- 
ster adds : We are here to administer a Consti- 
tution emanating immediately from the people 
and trusted by them to our administration. It is 
not the creature of the State governments. It is 
of no moment to the argument, that certain acts 
of the State Legislatures are necessary to fill our 
seats in this body. That is not one of their origi- 
nal Sate powers, a part of the sovereignty of the 
State. It is a duty which the people by the Con- 
stitution itself have imposed on the State Legisla- 
tures ; and which they might have left to be per- 
formed elsewhere, if they had seen fit.'' He says 
in another speech : ''So much, sir, for the argu- 
ment, even if the premises of the gentleman were 
granted or could be proved. But, sir, the gentle- 
man has failed to raaintain his leading proposi- 
tion. He has not shown, it cannot be shown, that 
the Constitution is 'a compact between State 
governments.' The Constitution itself, in its very 
front, refutes that idea. It declares that it is 
ordained and established by the people of the 
United States.'' 

And yet Mr. Stephens solemnly represents and 
asserts that Mr. Webster recanted that opinion, 
14 



238 JAMES G. BLAINE, 

**The Constitution itself, in its very front, refutes 
that idea. It declares that it is ordained and 
established by the people of the United States. 
So far from saying that it is established by the 
o-overnments of the several States, it does not even 
say that it is established by the people of the 
several States ; but it pronounces that it is estab- 
lished by the people of the United States in the 
aggregate. The gentleman says it must mean no 
more than the people of the several States. 
Doubtless the people of the several States, taken 
collectively, constitute the people of the United 
States ; but it is in this their collective capacity, 
it is as all the people of the United States, that 
they establish the Constitution. So they declare, 
and words cannot be plainer than the words used. 
When the gentleman says the Constitution is a 
compact between the States he uses language 
exactly applicable to the old confederation. He 
speaks as if he were in Congress before 1789. 
He describes fully that old state of things then 
existing. The confederation was in strictness a 
compact ; the States, as States, were parties to it. 
We had no other general government.'' 

The other allegation of Mr. Stephens was that 
Mr. Webster, in 1838, five years after his speeches 
of 1833, had refused to vote against certain resolu- 
tions of Mr. Calhoun, and that this refusal was a 
very pregnant suggestion that he had then 
changed his mind. He makes a very solemn 



NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY, 



presentation of the fact that in a series of five reso- 
lutions which Mr. Calhoun introduced in i8^8, 
involving all the heretical doctrines of the State- 
rights, pro-slavery democracy, Mr. W ebster had 
not voted. He does not say that Mr. Webster 
voted for them, but that he had not voted against 
them. Those resolutions of Mr. Calhoun were 
introduced in December, 1837. They went on, 
as such resolutions will, being a foot-ball for politi- 
cal debate, for some months. On the 2 2d of 
March, 1838, after they had been passed upon by 
the Senate, Mr. Webster referred to them as fol- 
lows, in regard to the slavery question : Sir, 
this is a very grave matter; it is a subject very 
exciting and inflammable. I take, of course, all the 
responsibility belonging to my opinions ; but I 
desire those opinions to be understood, and fairly 
stated. If I am to be regarded as an enemy to 
the South because I could not support the gentle- 
man's resolutions, be it so. I cannot purchase 
favors from any quarter by the sacrifice of clear 
and conscientious convictions. The principal 
resolution declared that Congress had plighted 
its faith not to interfere either with slavery or the 
slave trade in the District of Columbia. Now, 
sir, that is quite a new idea. I never heard it 
advanced until this session.'' Mr. Webster then 
proceeds to argue still further : On such a 
question, sir, when I am asked what the Constitu- 
tion is, or whether any power granted by it has 



240 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



been compromised away, or, indeed, could be 
compromised away, I must express by honest 
opinion, and always shall express it if I say any- 
thing, notwithstanding it may not meet concurrence 
either in the South, or the North, or the East, 
or the West. I cannot express by my vote 
what I do not believe. The gentleman has 
chosen to bring that subject into this debate, 
with which it has no concern, but he may 
make the most of it, if he thinks he can pro- 
duce unfavorable impressions against me at the 
South for my negative to his fifth resolution. As 
to the rest of them, they were commonplaces 
generally or abstractions, in regard to v.^hich one 
may well feel himself not called on to vote at all.'' 
And with that record right before him Mr. 
Stephens writes that Mr. Webster's ominous 
refusal to vote on the resolutions indicated a 
change of mind, when here was his defiant review 
of the whole subject of Mr. Calhoun's heresies. 
And then Mr. Webster proceeded with some 
remarks which I am disposed to think might now 
be addressed to the other side of the chamber, 
mutatis mutandis, and we should hardly realize 
that forty years had gone by. Let me read a 
single paragraph — I wish it were original with me, 
addressed as Mr. Webster then addressed it — to 
the opposite side of the chamber : — 

The honorable member from Carolina himself 
habitually indulges in charges of usurpation and 



NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY, 



oppression against the government of his country. 
He daily announces its important measures in 
the language in which our revolutionary fathers 
spoke of the oppressions of the mother country. 
Not merely against executive usurpation,, either 
real or supposed, does he utter these sentiments, 
but against laws of Congress, laws passed by large 
majorities, laws sanctioned for a course of years 
by the people. These laws he proclaims, every 
hour, to be but a series of acts of oppression. 
He speaks of them as if it were an admitted fact 
that such is their true character. This is the 
language he utters, these are the sentiments he 
expresses, to the rising generation around him. 
Are they sentiments and language which are 
likely to inspire our children with the love of 
union, to enlarge their patriotism, or to teach them, 
and to make them feel that their destiny has made 
them common citizens of one grand and glorious 
Republic? A principal object in his late political 
movements, the gentleman himself tells us, was 
to unite the entire South ; and against whom or 
what does he wish to unite the entire South ? Is 
not this the very essence of local feeling and local 
reo^ard? Is it not the acknowledorment of a wish 
and object to create political strength by uniting 
political opinions geopraphically ? Finally, the 
honorable member declares that he shall now 
march off under the banner of State rights. 
March off from whom ? March off from what ? 



242 JAMES G. BLAINE, 

We have been contending for great principles. 
We have been struggling to maintain the liberty 
and to restore the prosperity of our country. We 
have made these struggles here in the national 
councils, with the old flag — the true American flag, 
the eagle and the stars and stripes — waving over 
the chamber in which we sit. He now tells us, 

-however, that he marches off under the State- 
rights banner. Let him go. I remain. I am 
where I have ever been, and ever mean to be.'' 

The honorable Senator from Georgia the other 
day made a speech that was somewhat remark- 
able. Among other things, he depicted the over- 
whelming grief he had at the secession of the 
Southern States ; and when he was called upon 
by the independent voters of the country of Troup 
to represent them in the secession convention, he 

•wrote this letter to them as he says: ''I will 
consent to the dissolution of the Union as I would 
consent to the death of my father, never from 
choice, only from necessity, and then in sorrow 
and sadness of heart.'' 

Well, he was elected on that platform, and he 
v/ent to the convention, and the convention, as we 
all know, passed the ordinance of secession. And 
in the evening of January 19, 1861, he writes to a 
friend a letter which he quotes himself : Dear 
Sir : The deed is done. Georgia this day left the 
Union. Cannon have been firing and bells tolling. 
At this moment people are filling the streets 



NATIONAL SOVEREIGNS, 



243 



shouting vociferously. A large torchlight pro- 
cession is moving from house to house and calling 
out speakers. The resolution declaratory passed 
on yesterday, and similar scenes were enacted last 
night. The crowd called loudly for me, but my 
room was dark, my heart was sad, and my tongue 
was silent. Whoever may be in fault is not now 
the question. Whether by the North or by the 
South or by both, the fact remains : the Union 
has fallen. The most favored sons of freedom 
have written a page in history which despots v/ill 
read to listening subjects for centuries to come to 
prove that the people are not capable of self- 
government. How can I think thus and feel 
otherwise than badly ? 

Here is the ordinance to dissolve the Union 
between the State of Georgia and other States 
united with her under a compact of government 
entitled the Constitution of the United States.'' 
This is the original journal of the Georgia con- 
vention ; it is a rare book. The literature of that 
section from some cause is very hard to procure. 

*'We, the people of the State of Georgia, in 
convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and 
it is hereby declared and ordained. That the 
ordinance adopted by the people of the State of 
Georgia in convention on the second day of Janu- 
ary, in the year of our Lord 1788, whereby the 
Constitution of the United States of America was 
assented to, ratified and adopted ; and also all 



^44 



JAMES G, BLAINE, 



acts and parts of acts by the General Assembly of 
this State, ratifying and adopting amendments of 
the said Constitution, are hereby repealed, 
rescinded and abrogated. We do further declare 
and ordain, That the union now subsisting be- 
tween the State of Georgia and other States, 
under the name of ' United States of America,' is 
hereby dissolved, and that the State of Georgia is 
in the full possession and exercise of all those 
rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain 
to a free and independent State/' 

That was the ordinance which the Senator from 
Georgia said to the people of Troup he would 
consent to, as he would to the death of his father, 
and the ordinance which the evening after it was 
passed so filled his heart with sadness that he put 
out the lights in his room and would not make a 
speech to a crowd outside serenading him. I have 
read the yeas and nays on that and what is my 
unbounded surprise to find that the Senator from 
Georgia himself voted for the ordinance. Here 
he is, Hill, of Troup.'' I believe I am right in 
saying that he is the man. There were two or 
three Hills, all voting for it, but Hill, of Troup," 
voted for it, and he cannot say in defence of that 
vote, that he did it because there was one of those 
tempestuous and tumultuous rushes of public 
opinion which bear everything before it, and 
which no man could resist. W e know what that 
is. It sometimes assumes such positive and 



NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 



245 



portentous force as to have moblike violence, 
i hat was not so in this convention. On the call 
of the yeas and nays, there were 208 in favor of 
the ordinance of secession and 89 against it, and 
in the 89 were Alexander H. Stephens and Her- 
schel V. Johnson, who had that very year run for 
Vice-President on the Douglas ticket. The Sena- 
tor from Georgia (Mr. Hill), w^ho would consent 
to it, just as he would to the death of his father, 
made up his mind that if two hundred and eight 
men wanted to murder the old man he would join 
with them. (Great laughter and applause.) 
Rather than be in a minority he would join the 
murderous crowd (laughter) and be a parricide. 

Nobody would possibly infer from the speech 
the honorable Senator made the other day, that 
he had voted for the ordinance ; and I do not say 
this with any feeling, because I have none. It is 
now indeed a most extraordinary thing to find a 
gentleman from the South who was originally for 
secession. I do not know who was. I see very 
pleasant and complimentary biographies of the 
various Senators on that side, and they were all 
dragged into secession. 

I was referring to the fact that the honorable 
Senator from Georgia — at the time he rested his 
eye directly on the Senator from Connecticut, 
whose pleasant face I love to look into — gave us 
the assurance on this side, that we were tremen- 
dously mistaken in supposing the Republicans had 



246 JAMES G, BLAINE. 

done anything toward saving the Union ; it was 
the Democrats that had saved it, the Northern 
Democrats. Well, I said, if that be so, Mr. Lin- 
coln was the victim of a prodigious delusion. Mr. 
Lincoln did not think so. It happened under the 
authority of a military officer who now graces this 
body with his presence, the Senator from Rhode 
Island (Mr. Burnside), that Mr. Vallandigham was 
arrested. His release was sought by a committee 
of a great convention of the Democrats of Ohio. 
They had a very notable interview, and a very 
notable correspondence with Mr. Lincoln, and I 
beg after the lapse of fifteen or sixteen years to 
refer to that correspondence. I will read an ex- 
tract, the moral of which will explain itself: ''At 
the same time (says Mr. Lincoln) ''your nomi- 
nee for Governor, in whose behalf you appeal, is 
known to you and to the world to declare against 
the use of an army to suppress the rebellion. 
Your own attitude, therefore, encourages deser- 
tion, resistance to the draft, and the like, because 
it teaches those who incline to desert and to es- 
cape the draft, to believe it is your purpose to 
protect them, and to hope that you will become 
strong enough to do so. After a short personal in- 
tercourse with you, gentlemen of the committee, I 
cannot say I think you desire this eftect to follow 
your attitude ; but I assure you that both friends 
and enemies of the Union look upon it in this 

light. " 



NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY, 



247 



Mr Lincoln distinctly understood how the 
South regarded it. Both friends and enemies of 
the Union look upon it in this light. It is a sub- 
stantial hope, and by consequence a real strength 
to the enemy. It is a false hope, and one which 
you would willingly dispel. I will make the way 
exceedingly easy. I send you duplicates of this 
letter in order that you, or a majority, may, if you 
choose, indorse your names upon one of them, 
and return it thus indorsed to me, widi the under- 
standing that those signing are thereby committed 
to the following propositions, and to nothing else." 

Now, mark you, he was addressing a committee 
that represented the Democratic party of Ohio, 
speaking for the whole party. Mr. Lincoln says — 
I want you to commit yourself just to this, gentle- 
men, nothing else : '^i. That there is now a re- 
belHon in the United States, the object and ten- 
dency of which is to destroy the National Union ; 
and that in your opinion, an army and navy are 
constitutional means for suppressing that rebel- 
lion ; 2. That no one will do anything which, in 
his own judgment, will tend to hinder the increase 
or favor the decrease or lessen the efficiency of 
the army and navy, while engaged in the effort to 
suppress that rebellion ; and 3. That each of you 
will, in his sphere, do all he can to have the of- 
ficers, soldiers and seamen of the army and navy, 
w^hile engaged in the effort to suppress the rebel- 
lion, paid, fed, clad, and otherwise well provided 



24S JAMES G. BLAINE, 

for and supported. And v/ith the further under- 
standhicr that, upon receiviiiij the letter and names 
thus indorsed, I will cause them to be published, 
which publicatioa shall be, within itself, a revoca- 
tion of the order in relation to Mr. Vallandig- 
ham." 

And this party, this Northern Democratic party 
that fought out the rebellion and restored the 
Union, would not put their names to these prop- 
ositions. These representatives of a State con- 
vention that spoke for the entire party would not 
acknowledge that there was a rebellion, would 
not acknowledge that an army and navy could be 
used to suppress it, would not acknowledge that 
they would do anything whatever to aid in paying or 
feeding or clothing or supporting that army. So 
Mr. Lincoln has given them, in another letter on 
the same subject, a letter addressed to Mr. Cor- 
ning, of New York, a little advice, applicable to 
both — advice which I think wall live for its patriot- 
ism and eloquence almost as long as his Gettys- 
burg speech. He wrote to Mr. Corning : *'Long 
experience has shown that armies cannot be main- 
tained unless desertion shall be punished by the 
severe penalty of death. The case requires, and 
the law and Constitution sanction, this punishment. 
Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier-boy who de- 
serts, while I must not touch a hair of a wily agi- 
tator who induces him to desert? This is none 
the less injurious when effected by getting a 



NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 



249 



father, or brother, or friend Into a pubHc meeting, 
and there working upon his feelings until he is 
persuaded to write the soldier-boy that he is fighting 
in a bad cause, for a wicked administration of a 
contemptible government, too weak to arrest and 
punish him if he shall desert. I think that, in 
such a case, to silence the agitator and to save the 
boy is not only constitutional, but withal a great 
mercy/' 

That is what he did. He sent a good many of 
the Democratic agitators to Fort Lafayette and 
saved the boys. 

Mr. President, I do not think that the evil that 
has been done to this country, by publications like 
the one I referred to from Mr. Alexander H. Ste- 
phens, has yet been measured. I do not think the 
evil that has been done to the Southern country 
by the school-books in the hands of their children 
has been measured. Many of the books put 
into the hands of the rising generation of the 
South are tinctured all through with prejudice 
and misrepresentation and with a spirit of 
hatred. 

We are accused by our friends on the opposite 
side of the chamber of stirring up strife and gen- 
erating hatred. I do not believe it would be pos- 
sible to find in all the literature of the North ioi 
the schools and for the young a solitary paragraph 
intended or calculated to arouse hatred or sueeest 

<_> o 

unpatriotic feelings toward any portion of the 



250 



JAMES G. BLAIXE, 



Union. A large portion of the South has been 
furnished with special school-books calculated for 
the meridian, with the facts appended to suit that 
particular locality. It was said that for two gen- 
erations a large portion of the English people 
believed that the American colonies had never 
achieved their independence but had been kicked 
off as a useless appendage to the British Empire, 
and that they were glad to be rid of us. There 
is a laro-e number of school-children in the South 
who are educated with radically wrong notions 
and radically erroneous facts, I saw an arithme- 
tic that was filled with examples — ^think of putting 
politics into arithmetic — such as this : If ten covr- 
ardly Yankees had so m.any miles the start, and 
five brave Confederates were followino- them, the 
first going at so many miles an hour, and the others 
following at so many miles an hour, how long before 
the Yankees Vv ould be overtaken ? Now think of 
putting that deliberately in a school-book and hav- 
ing school histories made up on that basis for 
children. I have here from a gentleman who, I 
believe, is a man of high position, an extract which 
is so pertinent that I desire to read it. It is from an 
address before the literar}^ societies of the Mrgin- 
ia University, by Mr. John S. Preston, a gentleman 
of distinction, I believe, in the State of South Car- 
olina. I want to read this merely to put it on 
record to show the pabulum on which the South- 
ern mind feeds : ''The Mayflower freight under 



NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. 



251 



the laws of England was heresy and crime. The 
Jamestown emigrant was an English freeman, 
loyal to his country and his God, with England's 
honor in his heart and English piety in his soul, 
and carrying in his right hand the charters, usages 
and the laws which were achieving the regen- 
eration of England. ^ These two people 
spoke the same language, and nominally read the 
same Bible ; but like the offspring of the Syrian 
princes, they were two manner of people, and 
they could not coalesce or commune. Their feud 
began beyond the broad Atlantic, and has never 
ceased on its Western shores. Not space, or 
time, or the convenience of any human law, or 
the power of any human arm, can reconcile insti- 
tutions for the turbulent fanatic of Plymouth Rock 
and the God-fearing Christian of Jamestown. 
You may assign them to the closest territorial 
proximity, with all the form„s, modes and shows of 
civilization ; but you can never cement them into 
the bonds of brotherhood. Great Nature, in her 
supremest law, forbids it. Territorial localization 
drove them to a hollow and unnatural armistice in 
effecting their segregation from England — the one 
for the lucre of traffic, the other to obtain a more 
perfect law of liberty ; the one to destroy foreign 
tea, the other to drive out foreign tyrants ; the 
one to offer thankso-ivino- for the fruit of the 
earth, the other to celebrate the gift of grace by 
the birth of Christ.'' 



2^2 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

I have here also a speech delivered by the hon- 
orable Senator from South Carolina, the junior 
Senator from that State (Mr. Hampton), before 
the Historical Society, I believe, of the South, and 
this has arrested my attention. Of course, I read 
it in no spirit of captious or personal criticism, 
but as a great public document ; and if what I 
read means anything, it means a great deal: — 

Lessons from History. — These are the lessons 
our children should learn from their mothers. 
Nor are these the only ones which should be in- 
culcated, for the pages of history furnish many 
which should not be overlooked. These teach, 
in the clearest and most emphatic manner, 
that there is always hope for a people w^ho 
cherish the spirit of freedom, who will not 
tamely give up their rights, and who amid 
all the changes of time, the trials of adversity, re- 
main steadfast to their convictions that liberty is 
their birthright. 

''The South Compared to Prussia and the 
North to Franck. — When Napoleon, in that 
wonderful campaign of Jena, struck down in a 
few weeks the whole military strength of Prussia, 
destroyed that army with which the great Frede- 
rick had held at bay the combined forces of Eu- 
rope, and crushed out, apparently forever, the 
liberties, seemingly the very existence of that 
great State, but one hope of her disenthralment 
and regeneration was left her — the unconquered 



NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY, 



and unconquerable patriotism of her sons. As far 
as human foresight could penetrate the future, this 
hope appeared but a vain and delusive one ; yet 
only a few years passed before her troops turned 
the scale of victory of Waterloo, and the treaty of 
Paris atoned in part for the m.ortification of that of 
Tilsit. She educated her children by a system 
which made them good citizens in peace and for- 
rhidable soldiers in war ; she kindled and kept 
alive the sacred fire of patriotism ; she woke the 
slumbering spirit of the Fatherland ; and v.'hathas 
been the result of this self-devotion of a whole 
people for half a century? Single-handed, she has 
just ^met her old antagonist. The shame of her 
defeats of yore has been wiped out by glorious 
victories ;the contributions extorted from her have 
been more than repaid ; her insults have been 
avenged, and her victorious eagles, sweeping over 
the broken lilies of her enemy, waved in triumph 
from the walls of conquered Paris, while she dic- 
tated peace to prostrate and humble France. Is 
not the moral to be drawm from this noble dedica- 
tion of a people to the interests and honor of their 
country worth remembering? Hungary, in her re- 
cent struggle to throw off the yoke of Austria, 
was crushed to the earth, and yet to day the Hun- 
garians, as citizens of Austria, exercise a con- 
trolling power in that great empire. " 

If the Senator speaks of a revival of a power 
that was once conqured, to be victorious at 
^5 



2-6 JAMES G. BLAIXE, 

another Waterloo, vnth a crowning peace in Paris 
to atone for the hurniUation of Tilsit — if that means 
anything by analogy at all, it has a deep and far- 
reachincr significance. 
Mr. Hampton: 

Peace hath her victories 
No less renown'd than war." 

Mr. Blaine. — But peace does not celebrate her 
victories on the plains of Waterloo. That is where 
war celebrates its triumphs. Peace does not cele- 
brate itself by great armed hosts that are employed 
and marshalled for aveno-ina- result, to which 
the honorable Senator called attention. That is 
not the language of peace, and without the slight- 
est intention to say anything discourteous, I say it 
is mere rhetoric — I leave out the adjective — it is 
mere rhetoric, or it is a prodigious menace. It is 
the one or the other. 

As to the pending bill, I need only to say that 
the law^s proposed to be repealed are precisely 
the kind which Mr. W^ebster alluded to when he 
addressed r\Ir. Calhoun ; laws that have received 
the sanction of Congress and been for years on 
the statute book. They are there properly. They 
have secured justice ; they have assured fair and 
equal elections ; they ought to be upheld ; and to 
this hour not one solitary reason has been shown 
for their repeal, with the single exception of a de- 
sire to grasp partisan power. It all moves in one 
direction Every step has been taken since the 



NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY, 257 

Democratic party got into power in the House 
and in the Senate in one direction, and that direc- 
tion has been to the striking down of the Fed- 
eral power and the exaltation of the State powder. 
This measure is but one. Others have gone before 
it ; others are to follow it. What may be their 
fate I do not know. We on this side will resist by 
every constitutional means, and you on that side, 
despite the threats of the Senator from Connecti- 
cut, will be obliged to submit in the end, and the 
power of this Government will not be put down 
by a threat ; it will not be put down by a comxbi- 
nation ; it will not be put down by a political 
party. It was not put dowm by a rebellion. It 
can meet another, either in the form of organized 
resistance in withholding supplies or in the more 
serious form which the lano*uaee of the vSenator 
from South Carolina seemed to foreshadow. 



CHAPTER X. 



1876 AND 1880. 

Interest in the Political Contest of the Centennial Year — The Rival Re- 
publican Candidates — Mr. Blaine's Prostration — Presentation of His 
Name at the. Cincinnati Convention — Colonel Ingersoll's Speech — 
" The Plumed Knight " — Nomination of Governor Hayes — The Con- 
vention of 1880 — The Third Term Question — Steadfastness of the 
Grant and Blaine Forces — A Long Deadlock — The Final Compromise 
on Garfield. 

There is no need of dwelling in detail here 
upon the extraordinary interest that invested 
the Presidential campaign of 1876 and the causes 
thereof. It must all be perfectly clear to every 
reader of the history of those times, it was" 
really the first serious contest since the advent of 
the Republican party to power, imm.ediately be- 
fore the War of the Rebellion. The re-nomination 
of Lincoln in 1864 was a matter of course, and 
his re-election was almost equally so. In 1868 
there was only one possible candidate. Grant ; and 
his re-nomination and re-election in 1872 were, 
despite a considerable revolt v/ithin the party, a 
foregone conclusion. 

Novv^, however, there was no one dominant can- 
didate in the Republican party. A third term for 
Grant was out of the question, and there was a 
general feeling that the next President would best 
be chosen from civil rather than from military life. 
Moreover, the Republican candidate would not 
258 



1876 AND 1880. 259 

have such an easy campaign and such a sure 
victory as Grant had enjoyed. The revoh of 
1872 had" materially weakened the party, in num- 
bers and discipline. In tlie South the former 
Rebels had regained political pov/er and were, by 
various extra-legal means, making their States 
surely Democratic. The financial distress of 1873 
had affected the whole nation, and naturally in- 
spired many people with an idea that a change in 
the politics of the National Administration would 
be a good thing. V arious departmental scandals at 
Washington had brought discredit upon the party 
in povv^er. The great victories of the Democra.ts 
in the Congressional elections of 1874 had en- 
couraged the hope that they would win the Presi- 
dency in 1876 ; especially should they nominate — 
as they did — Mr. Tilden, who, as Governor of 
New York, had won national fame and favor as a 
reformer and a wise statesman. It Vv'as evident, 
therefore, that the battle would be almost unpre- 
cedentedly hot and close, and it was miost desir- 
able to put forward the very strongest candidate 
that could be found. 

The foremost candidate for the nomination was 
uncjuestionably Mr Blaine. There was no man 
in the party better known or more admired than 
he. His distinguished services in the House ot 
Representatives had placed him in the foremost 
rank of statesmen and of party leaders. His vigor- 
■ ous speeches, of recent date, upholding the 



260 JAMES G. BLAINE, 

sovereignty of the Nation against the attacks of the 
ex-Rebels in Congress, had greatly endeared him 
to the North, already anxious over the returning 
Dower of the Southern Democrats. Lonor before 
the Convention opened, it was evident to all well- 
informed observers that he would have by far the 
strongest following in that body. He represented 
civil, not military, life ; and Vv'hile generaily a stead- 
fast supporter of the Republican i\dministration, 
he was by no means so closely identified widi its 
interests as to share in the odium of its various 
scandals. For this reason he was held by a very 
considerable portion of the party to be the strong- 
est candidate tha,t could be chosen. 

His chief rival v/as Roscoe Conkling. of New 
York, the leader of the Republican party in the 
National Senate. This brilliant and eloquent 
statesm.an was the most intimiate friend of Grant, 
and had as his support the ''Administration wing" 
of the party. At the same time his austere virtue 
held him free from any suspicion of complicity in 
the jobbery that prevailed in some of the depart- 
ments at Washington. His character was spot- 
less, his services to the State were distinguished, 
his abilities ware of the highest order, and he was 
one of the most astute and successful of party 
leaders. 

Other conspicuous candidates v^ere Senator 
Morton, the famous '' War Governor of Indiana : 
Benjamin H. Bristow, of Kentucky, v.ho had 



1876 AND 1880. 



achieved an enviable record as Secretary of the 
Treasury ; Goverrior Hartranft, of Pennsylvania, 
who had also a fine record of military service ; 
Governor Jewell, of Connecticut, who had served 
the Nation in various important offices, at home 
and abroad ; and Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, 
who had served with distinction in the war, and 
who had won a splendid victory at the polls in 
Ohio, being elected Governor , on an honest 
money platform, against the fiat money craze 
which was then raging in that State with especial 
virulence. 

The ''Mulligan letters'' affair, already recorded 
in this volume, had been threshed out in Congress 
and in the newspaper press of the country, just 
before the meetinof of the Convention. It is not 
likely that it had much effect upon the action of 
the latter body. Mr. Blaine had splendidly vindi- 
cated himself and thrown his enemies into dire 
confusion. There was, therefore, no reason for 
the alienation of any of his supporters, nor does 
it appear that any of them were alienated. On 
the contrary, there was reason for regarding him 
with sympathy and admiration ; and doubtless 
those feelings toward him w^ere considerably in- 
creased. Yet such considerations were not 
greatly calculated to influence votes in the Con- 
vention. 

On the very eve of the gathering at Cincinnati, 
however, another event occurred of much more 



262 



JAMES G, BLAINE. 



grave importance than the attacks of poHtical foes. 
For many weeks Mr. Blaine had been exceedingly 
busy. He had been busy with his work as a Rep- 
resentative in Congress — one of the most active 
and industrious men in the House. He had been 
busy repelling the assaults of those w^io strove to 
defame him and to effect his pohtical destruction. 
He had been busy, too, with the furtherance of 
his own ambition, that most exalted and most 
laudable ambition of American citizenship, to be 
chosen by the free sufrrages of the Nation to be 
its Chief Executive. Mr. Blaine doubtless at this 
time, as at other times since, earnestly desired to 
become President. For that desire, no apologies 
need ever to be made. The man who seeks such 
office basely and by unworthy means, deserves 
only the uttermost condemnation. But the man 
who, like Mr. Blaine, seeks it by making himself 
worthy of it, by cherishing high character and 
achieving noble deeds for the public weal, is in 
even that very ambition a most admirable example 
and pattern for the moulding of American citizen-^ 
ship. 

But these manifold activities and anxieties told 
seriously upon Mr. Blaine's physical condition. 
More, perhaps, than he was aware, his nerves w^ere 
strained, his brain wearied, his constitution weak- 
ened in all its vital energies. At the middle of June 
the Vv^eather became intensely hot. Sunday, the 
nth, w^as a particularly oppressive day, and the 



J876 AND 1880. 263 

Streets of Washington were like the mouths of a 
furnace. That day, when the sun was approaching 
his meridian fervor, Mr. Blaine set out for church, 
accompanied by four ladies of his family. The dis- 
tance was about half a mile. As they v/alked 
along, the ladies, under their sun umbrellas, com.- 
plained much of the heat ; but Mr. Blaine, not 
thus protected, scarcely seemed to notice it. He 
was apparently in perfect heakh, and certainly in 
splendid spirits. The church which they attended 
was Dr. Rankin's, a ConoTco-ational church, at 
Tenth and D streets. Just as the party reached 
the church door, Mr. Blaine stopped suddenly, 
and pressed a handkerchief upon his eyes. Ivlrs. 
Blaine laughingly asked him what was the matter, 
if he had got some dust in his eyes. 

No/' he said, gasping for breath, ''but I — I 
think I am sunstruck. Oh, my head i" 

With that he sunk down upon the church steps, 
insensible. Mrs. Blaine supported his head in her 
arms, while their little daughter Hattie, five years 
old, ran into the church and called some friends 
to. their assistance. A passing omnibus was 
hailed, and the prostrate man was lifted into it 
and carried to his home. On being carried into 
the house he revived sufficiently to say, ''Lay me 
on the floor." He was accordingly placed u]3on 
the parlor floor, v/ith a pillow beneath his head, 
and a little later a bed was arran^-ed in that room 
and he was laid upon it. 



264 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

Thus he lay, fi'om eleven o'clock in the morn- 
ing- until a quarter Dast four in the afternoon, 
speechless and almost lifeless. For the first two 
hours he was apparently insensible ; his eyes wude 
open but expressionless and immovable, his limbs 
lim.p but motionless, and only a w^eak breathing 
to indicate the presence of life. Gradually, how- 
ever, intelligence returned to his eyes, and it Vv'as 
evident that consciousness had returned. Now 
and then he groaned slightly, and his eyelids 
moved. He remained speechless, however, and 
m.ade no response to any questions put to him by 
his attendants. Late in the afternoon Mrs. Blaine 
asked him. earnestly, "James, do you not know 
me and to her delio'ht he uttered her name in re- 
ply. Presently he asked, " What is it ?" and then, as 
if only half conscious, ''Where am I?" All the 
evening he lay, conscious but motionless ; and at 
ten o'clock fell asleep. During Monday he con- 
tinued to improve, and on Tuesday w^as able to sit 
up and read and wTite. That evening he wrote 
with his own hand this despatch to his friend the 
Hon. Eugene Hale, at Cincinnati : 

"Eugene TIale: — I am entirely convalescent, suffering only from 
phy?;ical v. eakness. Impress upon my friends the great depth of gratitude 
I fctl for the nn}^;araHele^i steadfastness with which they have adhered to 
in my hour of trial. J. G. Blaine." 

No description can do justice to the excitement 
that prevailed in Washington when the news of 
Mr. Blaine's prostration became known. The fall 



i8y6 AND 1880. 265 

of the President himself could scarcely have 
created a greater sensation. All Sunday afternoon 
and evening crowds of thousands of people gari> 
ered about his house, waidng for tidings from his 
bedside. At the hotels and clubs and wherever 
people met, there w^as but one topic of conversa- 
tion. All sorts of rumors were extant : that he 
Avas dying, or dead ; that he was hopelessly para- 
lyzed ; that his mind was lost and could never be 
regained. 

In Cincinnati, too, the interest was equally 
great. i\lready most of the delegates were there, 
ready for the Convention v/hich was to open on 
Wednesday. When news of Tvlr. Blaine's pros- 
tration w^as received, his supporters and friends 
were stricken wdth consternation. It seemed a 
death-blow to his candidacy. Even when it v^^as 
known that he Vvas rapidly recoverino-, his opoo- 
nents did not cease to make malevolent use of the 
incident. They argued that his physical health 
was probably much impaired, so that he could not 
stand the strain of a Presidential campaign ; even 
that his mind w^as permanently affected, and that 
he would never display again that vigor and ac- 
tivity of intellect that had made him a giant in 
debate. These considerations w^ere pressed home 
to his supporters unceasingly, and still more per- 
sistently to those uncommitted delegates who 
were likely to be won over to his side. How little 
effect these arguments had, may be seen in the 



266 



JAMES G. BLAIXE. 



result of the ballotino- in the Convention. Before 
the " IMulhgan letters" had been brought out, 
and before his illness, it vras estimated that he 
would have 286 votes on the first ballot. He act- 
ually received 285, aad on the second, imme- 
diately afterward, 296. 

The Convention met on Wednesday, June 14th, 
with the Hon. Edward TvicPherson as oresidine 
officer. On Thursday the Declaration of Princi- 
ples was adopted, and the candidates v^^ere placed 
formally in nomxination. The roll of States was 
called, alohabeticallv, and each named its choice. 
Connecticut put forward Marshall Jevv'ell ; Indiana, 
Oliver P. I\Iorton. Kentucky's choice, Benjamin 
H. Bristovv^ was eloquentlv introduced bv Georee 
William, Curds, of New York. James G. Blaine, 
of liaine, was named by Pvobert G. Ingersoll, of 
Illinois. Nevv^ York nominated Roscoe Conkling ; 
Ohio, P.utherford B. Hayes ; and Pennsylvania, 
John F. Hartranft. 

The speech of Colonel Ingersoll, nominating 
Mr. Blaine, was singularly effective and inspiring. 
One phrase in it, especially, has become historic, 
and has fixed upon Mr. Blaine a popular title, by 
v/hich he will ever be known— ''the Plumbed 
Knight." The speaker immediately preceding Col- 
onel Ingersoll was from Massachusetts, and spoke 
in favor of Bristovv^ dv/elling upon the confidence 
which the people of the Old Bay State had in his 
ability, integrity and loyalty. While those words 



i\y6 AXD iS3o. 



267 



were yet echoing in the ears of the ConvCxntion, 
Colonel Ingersoii arose, and spoke as foliovrs : 

''Mr, Chairinan, Ladies and Gentleineji: — Mas- 
sachusetts may be satisfied with the loyalty of 
Benjamin H. Bristow ; so am I ; but if any man 
nominated by this Convention cannot carry the 
State of Massachusetts, I amx not satisfied with 
the loyalty of that State. If the nominee of this 
Convention cannot carry the grand old' Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts by seventy-five thousand 
majority, I v/ould advise them to sell out Faneuil: 
Hall as a Democratic headquarters. I would ad- 
vise them to take from Bunker Hill that old mon- 
ument of glory. 

''The Republicans of the United States de- 
mand as their leader in the great contest of 1876 
a man of intelligence, a mian of integrity, a man 
of well-known and approved political opinions. 
They demand a statesm^an ; they demiand a re- 
former after as well as before the election. They 
dem.and a politician in the highest, broadest and 
best sense— a man of superb moral courage. 
They demand a man acquainted with public af- 
fairs, with the wants of the people ; with not only 
the requirements of the hour, but with the de- 
mands of the future. (Applause.) 

''They demand a man broad enough to com- 
prehend the relations of this government to the 
other nations of the earth. They demand a man 
well versed in the powers, duties and prerogatives 



268 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



of each and every department of this govern- 
ment. They demand a man who v^ill sacredly 
preserve the financial honor of the United States ; 
one vv^ho knows enough to know that the national 
debt must be paid through the prosperity of this 
people ; one who knov/s enough to know that all 
the financial theories in the world cannot redeem 
a single dollar ; one who knows enough to know 
that all the money must be made, not by law, but 
by labor ; one who knows enough to know that 
all the people of the United States have the in- 
dustry to make the money, and the honor to pay it 
over just as fast as they make it. (Applause.) 

''The Republicans of the United States de- 
mand a man who knows that prosperity and 
resumption, when they come, must come together ; 
that when they come, they will come hand in hand 
through the golden harvest fields ; hand in hand 
by the whirling spindles and the turning wheels ; 
hand in hand past the open furnace doors ; hand 
in hand by the chimneys filled with eager fire, 
greeted and grasped by the countless sons of toil. 
This money has to be dug out of the earth. You 
cannot make it by passing resolutions in a polit- 
ical Convention. (Applause.) 

''The Republicans of the United States want a 
man who Jcnows that this government should pro- 
tect every citizen at home and abroad ; who 
knows that any government that will not defend 
its defenders, and protect its protectors, is a 



iS-jO AND 1880. 269 

disgrace to the map of the world. They demand a 
man who beUeves in the eternal separation and 
divorcement of church and school. They de~ 
mand a man whose political reputation is as spot- 
less as a star ; but they do not demand that their 
candidate shall have a certificate of moral char- 
acter signed by a confederate Congress. The 
man who has, in full, heaped and rounded meas- 
ure, all these splendid qualifications, is the present 
grand and gallant leader of the Republican party 
- — James G. Blaine. (Great applause,) 

Our country, crowned with the vast and mar- 
velous achievements of its first century, asks for 
a man worthy of the past, and prophetic of her 
future ; asks for a man who has the audacity of 
genius ; asks for a man who is the grandest com- 
bination of heart, conscience and brain beneath 
her flag — such a m.an is Jamics G. Blaine. (Ap- 
plause.) 

''For the Republican host, led by this intrepid 
man, there can be no defeat. 

''This is a grand year — a year filled with rec- 
ollections of the Revolution ; filled Vv^ith the proud 
and tender memories of the past; wath the sacred 
legends of liberty — a year in which the sons of 
freedom will drink from the fountain of enthusi- 
asm ; a year in which the people call for a man 
who has preserved in Conaress what our soldiers 
won upon the field ; a year in which they call for 
the man vv^ho has torn from the throat oi treason 



270 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

the tongue of slander — for the man who has 
snatched the mask of Democracy from the hid- 
eous face of rebellion ; for this man who, like an 
intellectual athlete, has stoo I in the arena of de- 
bate and challencred all comers, and who is still a 
total stranger to defeat. (Applause.) 

Like an armed warrior, like a plumed knight, 
Jam.es G. Blaine marched down the halls of the 
American Congress and threw his shining lance 
full and fair against the brazen foreheads of the 
defamers of his country and the maligners of his 
honor. For the Republican party to desert this 
gallant leader now, is as though an army should 
desert their general upon the field of battle. 
(Applause.) 

v James G. Blaine is now, and has been for 
years, the bearer of the sacred standard of the 
Republican party. I call it sacred, because no 
human beino- can stand beneath its folds without ~ 
becoming and without remaining free. 

''Gentlemen of the Convention, in the name of 
the great Republic, the only Republic that ever 
existed upon this earth ; in the name of all her 
defenders and of all her supporters ; in the name 
of all her soldiers living ; !n the name of all her 
soldiers dead upon the field of battle, and in the 
name of those who perished in the skeleton clutch 
of famine at Andersonville and Libby, whose suf- 
ferings he so vividly remembers, Illinois — Illinois 
nominates for the next President of this country 




JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



that prince of parliamentarians — that leader of 
leaders — James G. Blaine/' 

The next day, Friday, came the balloting. 
There were in all 756 votes, and 379 v/ere neces- 
sary to make a choice. The first ballot was 
chiefly complimentary in character. It showed 
the initial strength of the various candidates, how- 
ever, and gave some indication of the combi- 
nations that might be made to secure to one of 
them a majority of all the votes. On that first 
ballot Mr. Blaine easily led all competitors. He 
had 285 votes. Morton had 125, Bristow 
113, Conkling 99, Hayes 61, Hartranft 58, Jewell 
II, and William A. Wheeler, of New York, 3. 
The second ballot differed little from the first. 
Jewell was withdrawn and his 1 1 votes cast for 
Blaine, giving him 296. Conkling fell from 99 to 
93, and Morton from 125 to 120. These votes 
went to svN^ell Hayes's following from 61 to 64. 
Bristow's from 113 to 114, and Hartranft's from 
58 to 63 ; and one was cast for Elihu B. Wash- 
burne. 

The third ballot began amid intense anxiety. 

Important changes were expected. But the vote 

proceeded almost without change, only wavering 

a little, here and there. Hayes gained three, 

reaching 67 ; and Blaine lost three, falling to 293, 

to the deep disappointment of his friends. Tslor- 

ton lost seven, falling to 113, and Bristow gained 

seven, reachinof 121. Conklimr lost three, fallinor 
16 



JAMES G. BLAIXE. 

to 90. Hartranft gained five, reaching 68 ; and 
Wheeler got two and Washburne one. The Con- 
vention seemed no nearer a choice than at first. 
Mr. Blaine was 90 votes away fi-om the nomina- 
tion, and the New York and Pennsvlvania dele- 
gations, which seemed to be masters of the situa- 
tion, showed no sio-n of abandonlnor the candidates 
for Vvhom they were casting merely complimentary 
votes. Pennsylvania was voting for General 
Hartranft, w'hom no one expected to see chosen, 
and all the New York delegates, except one, 
w^ere holding out steadily for Senator Conkling, 
who was a strong and implacable opponent of 
Mr. Blaine. 

The fourth ballot was taken, and it also showed 
little change. Mr. Blaine's friends stood by him 
firmlv. He lost one vote in Alabama, one in 
Iowa, one in Texas, one in A^'ermont, and two in 
Michigan. But elsev/here he gained a number of 
votes, so that his net loss on this ballot was only 
one, his total vote standing at 292. It looked as 
if this deadlock might continue all day, and in- 
deed for many days. But the opponents of Mr. 
Blaine w'ere uneasy. His great strength in the 
Convention, and the steadfastness of his support- 
ers, alarmed them. They began planning to form 
some compromise and combination to defeat him. 
Many such schemxes had already been broached, 
but nothing had yet come of them. Governor 
Hayes, of Ohio, had been the central figure of 



1S76 AXD j88o. 275 

most of them, and now, on the fifth ballot, he was 
definitely chosen as the candidate upon whom an 
attempt would be made to unite the elements hos- 
tile to Mr. Blaine. It was, of course, a delicate 
and difficult task to transfer votes from one can- 
didate to another. The various deleo^ations had 
come to the Convention pledored or instructed to 
vote for such or such a candidate. As soon as it 
was decided to annul those pledges, the delegates 
would be free to follou^ their own individual choice, 
and it was not unlikely that there would be a con- 
siderable stampede in the direction of Mr. Blaine. 

The plan was executed, however, with singular 
tact and entire success. The venerable Governor 
Howard, of Michigan, was chosen to lead the 
movement. On the fifth ballot he hobbled on his 
crutches to the front of the hall and said, in a 
voice tremxulous both v/ith age and emotion, that 
there v/as one candidate before the Convention 
who had already defeated three Democratic aspi- 
rants for the Presidency — Allen G. Thurmian, 
George H. Pendleton and William Allen — and 
who seemed to have a habit of defeatincr distin- 
guished Demiocrats. It would be the part of wis- 
dom to give him an opportunity once more to de- 
feat whatever candidate the Democrats mio-ht piace 
in nomination for the Presidency. T^lichigan. 
therefore, cast her whole 22 votes solidly \ov 
Rutherford B. Hayes. This announcement, al- 
though not unexpected, came upon the Convention 



2-5 JAMES G. BLAIXE, 

with the sudden energy of an electric shock. 
A tremendous tidal wave of enthusiastic applause 
swept over the entire assemblage again and again. 
For a moment it looked as thoucr-h there would 
be a o-eneral stampede toward Haves. But Mr. 
Blaine's supporters stood firm as ever. The roll 
call proceeded. The next State, ?>Iinnesota, cast 
her vote, as before, for r\Ir. Blaine, and jNIissouri. 
coming next, gave him 20 votes, where before 
she had only given him i S. But then North Caro- 
lina abandoned him and voted for Hayes. So it 
went on to the end of the fikh ballot. ]\Ir. Blaine 
was not yet nominated, but he was still the leader 
amon'4' the candidates. A rival v/as comino; for- 
ward, however at a dangerous rate. On this 
ballot Mr. Blaine had 2S6 votes. iNIr. Bristow 
stood second with 114. Governor Hayes had 
risen to 104. Senator IMorton had 95, Senator 
Conklincr S2, and General Hartranft 6q. 

The sixth ballot was ordered. Down to the 
point where North Carolii:a was reached on the 
roll call there was no material chancre from the 
former ballot. But the Tar Heel State, which 
had deserted ]\Ir. Blaine on the fifth ballot, now 
came back to him solidly with 12 votes, and a 
mighty burst of cheering rent the air. Presently 
Pennsylvania was reached, and for the first time 
its delegation v:as divided. Fourteen of its votes 
were announced for ?\Ir. Blaine, and there was 
another scene of o-reat enthusiasm amono- his 



pSyS AND 1880. 277 

supporters. South Carolina also swung into line 
for him, and he now had 308 votes. Governor 
Hayes, meantime, had gained only 9 votes, stand- 
ing now at 1 13, v/hile Bristow had fallen to iii. 

Mr. Blaine's supporters were now confident 
and jubilant. His opponents saw that something 
must be done immediately if he was to be de- 
feated. For a space the Convention became a 
disorganized mob, a dozen men speaking at once 
and the various leaders earnestly and desperately 
consulting together. Then the Indiana delegation 
•marched out of the hall for consultation. The 
New York deleration followed, and then Penn- 
^ylvania went too. It was evident that these 
three great bodies would decide the result on the 
next ballot. And so they did. The seventh bal- 
lot was called. The names of Morton, Conkling 
and Hartranft were withdrawn, and the support- 
ers of their candidates went over in a body to 
Governor Hayes. The bulk of Mr. Bristow' s 
supporters also abandoned himi, many of them 
o-oinof to Mr. Blaine and the rest to Governor 
Hayes. On the seventh ballot 756 votes were 
cast, and 379 were necessary to a choice. Gov- 
ernor Hayes received 384, ]Mr. Blaine 351, and 
Mr. Bristow 21. Thus Mr. Blaine was defeated 
and Governor Hayes was nominated as the candi- 
date of the Pvcpublican party for President in tlie 
centennial year of the Union. But Mr. Blaine 
had the consolation of knowing that his friends 



278 JAMES G. BLAIXE. 

had supported him with a fervent loyalty such as 

few- candidates had ever before enjoyed. 

The record of Air. Blaine's activities during the 
four years that foUovred is given elsewhere. As 
the administration of President Hayes approached 
its close it became evident that }>Ir. Blaine would 
again be a leading candidate for the Republican 
nomination. His popularity in the party and 
throughout the Nation had been steadily increas- 
ing, and his support was stronger and more en- 
thusiastic than before. He entered the Conven- 
tion of 18S0, at Chicaofo, with almost exactly the 
same number of supporters that had striven in 
his behalf so earnestly in 1S76. The opposition 
to him vras now more united and better ororanized 

o 

than before. Its leader was Senator Conkling, 
and its candidate was General Grant, who was 
novr put forward for a third term in the White 
House. At the ooenina- of the Convention, on 
June 2d, there was a determined struggle over 
Vv^hat was knovvm as the ''unit rule." The oppo- 
nents of Mr. Blaine contended that each State's 
vote should be cast without division for the can- 
didate favored bv the maioritv of the delegation. 
Mr. Blaine's supporters contended that the' vote 
of a delecration mieht be divided accordino- to the 
individual preferences of its members. Finally 
General lames A. Garfield, of Ohio, was made 
chairman of the Committee on rules, and in the 
code Vvhich he reported to the Convention the 



i8j6 AND 1880. 279 

unit rule was disregarded, thus leaving the dele- 
gates free to vote according to their individual 
preferences. This was properly regarded as a 
victory for the Blaine forces and a defeat for the 
supporters of Grant. 

On the roll call of States for nomination of 
candidates the name of Mr. Blaine was presented, 
in behalf of the State of Maine, by James F. 
Joy, chairman of the Michigan delegation. Gen- 
eral Grant was nominated by Senator Conkling, 
and the other candidates named were John Sher- 
man, E. B. Washburne, George F. Edmunds and 
William Windom. 

On the first ballot 755 votes were cast, and 378 
were necessary to a choice. General Grant re- 
ceived 304, Mr. Blaine 284, John Sherman 93, E. 
B. Washburne 31, George F. Edmunds 34, and 
William Windom 10. Thenceforward to the 28th 
ballot there was scarcely any change in the 
voting. The vote for Grant varied from 302 in 
the 25th ballot to 309 in the 15th. The vote for 
Mr. Blaine was equally steady, ranging from 275 
in the 2 2d and 23d ballots to 285 in the 12th and 
13th. During the 28 ballots John Sherman's 
vote ranged from 88 to 97, E. B. Washburne's 
from 31 to 36, George F. Edmunds's from 31 to 
34, and William Windom' s remained fixedly at 
10. On almost every ballot one or two votes 
were cas't for James A. Garfield. On three bal- 
lots, one vote was cast for Benjamin Harrison ; 



28o 



JAMES G, BLAINE. 



on three, one for Rutherford B. Hayes ; on one, 
one for George W. McCreary ; on one, one for 
Edmund T. Davis ; and on four, one for John F. 
Hartranft. It was such a deadlock as had not 
before been seen in a Republican Convention. 

On the 29th ballot there was a slight but insig- 
nificant change, the vote of Mr. Edmunds fall- 
ing to 12 and that of Mr. Windoni to 7, and 
that of Mr. Sherman rising to 116. The votes 
for Grant and Blaine remained as before. The 
30th ballot was almost a duplicate of the 29th, but 
one scattering vote was cast for General Philip H. 
Sheridan. The 31st ballot showed no material 
change, but one vote was cast for Roscoe Conk- 
ling. The 3 2d ballot showed no sign of a break 
in the deadlock, the forces of the two great rivals 
standing unbroken, and the minor bodies, with 
whom lay the balance of power, not yet indica- 
ting in what direction they would finally cast their 
strength. The 33d ballot showed 309 votes for 
Grant, 276 for Blaine, 100 for Sherman, 44 for 
Washburne, 1 1 for Edmunds, 4 for Windom, 
and I for Garfield. 

All efforts to induce ther minor delegations to 
forsake their candidates in favor of either Grant 
or Blaine were fruitless. It therefore became 
evident that if the deadlock was ever to be bro- 
ken, one of the great bodies must forsake its 
candidate and accept a compromise. This the 
supporters of Grant positively refused to do. 



t^yb AND iS8o, 



They expressed their determination of standing 
together and voting together for the candidate of 
their choice as lone as the Convention remained 
in existence. The Blaine men were at least 
equally devoted to their candidate, but took a 
more reasonable view of the situation. When 
they became convinced that Mr. Blaine's nomina- 
tion was impossible they began to look about for 
the next best candidate. 

In the 34th ballot the first really significant 
break occurred. Washburne's vote fell from 44 
to 30, and Garfield's jforged ahead from i to 17. 
Grant's remained at 312, and Blaine's at 275. 
Sherman's was 107. Garfield had been sent to 
the Convention as the leader of the Sherman 
forces, and when delegates began to vote for him 
he protested that he w^as not a candidate. This 
protestation, however, did not restrain the dele- 
gates from voting for him, but seemed actually 
to encourage them to do so. His reluctance to 
receive the nomination v/as taken as a proof of 
his fitness for it. The supporters of Mr. Blaine 
now decided that it would be best, indeed that it 
was necessary, to abandon their loved and hon- 
ored candidate. Accordingly, on the 35th ballot, 
the majority of them did so, casting their votes 
for Garfield, who thus received 250 votes, while 
Blaine's fell to 57, Sherman's to 99, Washburne's 
to 23, Edmunds's to 11, and Windom's to 3. The 
Grant contingent stood firm as ever, and even 



282 



JAMES G, BLAINE. 



gamed a few recruits, casting on this ballot 313 
votes for their candidate. But the compromise 
was now effected, and nothing could hinder its 
success. The roll call for the 36th ballot 
began. Delegation after delegation abandoned 
Sherman and Washburne and Edmunds and Win- 
dom, and joined the irresistible forces of Garfield. 
Grant's supporters remained unmoved to the end, 
unwilling to yield and unable to attract a sufficient 
number of recruits to give them the victory. This 
was the decisive and final ballot. 755 votes were 
cast, and 378 were necessaiy to a choice. James 
A. Garfield received 399, General Grant 306, Mr. 
Blaine 42, Mr. Washburne 5, and Mr. Sherman 3. 

Thus this unexampled contest was ended. Mr. 
Blaine was again defeated. But he had once^ 
more received a most gratifying proof of the 
loyalty of his friends and of his personal popu- 
larity in the party, and he had, moreover, the sat- 
isfaction of knowing that the vote of his friends 
had decided the choice of the Convention in favor 
of one of his own most intimate and trusted 
friends. There is no doubt that Mr. Blaine was 
better pleased with the nomination of Garfield 
than he would have been with the choice of any 
other candidate beside himself And he imme- 
diately lent all the power of his personal popu- 
larity and his unsurpassed genius to the aid of the 
Garfield cam.paign, which, in November following, 
was crowned with success at the polls. 



CHAPTER XL 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 

Appointment to the Chief Portfolio in the Garfield Cabinet — Mr. Blaine's 
Letter of Acceptance — Salient Features of his Foreign Policy — Con- 
troversy with England ov-r the Neutrality of the Panama Canal — ■ 
Death of Garfield and Accession of President Arthur — The Invitation 
to the American Republics to Hoi I a Peace Congress — Object of 
these Negotiations — Mr. Blaine's Retirement from Office — Abandon- 
ment of His Plans by His Successor — Mr. Blaine's Vindication of His 
Policy. 

When Mr. Blaine's friend Garfield was chosen 
President in November, 1880, speculation began 
to arise as to who would compose his Cabinet. 
It was, however, universally expected that the 
office of Secretary of State therein would be filled 
by Mr. Blaine. This v/as also Garfield's intention. 
Very soon after the election he wrote to Mr. 
Blaine, who was then in the Senate, asking to see 
him as soon as possible. They met on Novem- 
ber 26th, and Garfield promptly offered Mr. 
Blaine the appointment of Secretary of St'ate. 
Mr. Blaine asked time for consideration, and some 
weeks afterwards, after consultation with his 
friends, wrote to the President-elect the following 
letter, accepting the offer : 

" W'ASHINGTON, December 20, iSSo. 
" Aly Dear Garfield : — Your generous invitation to enter your Cabinet 
as Secretary of State has bean under consideration for more tlian three 

283 



284 



JAMES G, BLAINE, 



weeks. The thought had really never occurred to my mind until at our 
late confereace you presented it v>-ith such cogent arguments in its favor 
and with such warmth of personal friend>hip in aid of your kind offer. 

" I know that an early answer is desirable, and I have waited only long 
enough to consider the subject in all its bearings and to make up my mind, 
detlnitely and conclusively. I now s.-.y to you, in the same cordial spirit in 
v/hich you have invired me, that I accept the position. 

It is no afiectaUon for me to add that I make this decision, not for the 
honor of the promotion it gives me in the public service, but because I 
think I can be useful io the country and to the party ; useful to you as the 
responsible leader of the party and the great head of the Government. 

"I am influenced somewhat, perhaps, by the shower of letters I have re- 
ceived urging me to accept, written to me in consequence of the mere 
unauthorized newspaper report that you had been pleased to offer me the 
place. V\'hile I have received these letters from all sections of the Union, 
I have been especially pleased and even surprised at the cordial and 
widely extended feeling in my favor throughout New England, where I 
had expected to encounter local jealousy and perhaps rival aspiration. 

In our new relation I shall give all that I am and all that I can hope 
to be, freely and joyfully, tn your service. You need no pledge of my 
loyalty in heart and in act. I should be false to myself did I not prove 
true both to the great trust 5-0^ confide to me and to yo ;r own personal and 
political fortunes in the present and in the future. Your administration 
must be made brilliantly successful and .strong in the confidence and pride 
of the people, not at all directing its energies for re-election, and yet 
compelling that result t)v the logic of events and by the imperious neces- 
sities of the situation. 

*• To that most desirable consummation I feel that, next to yourself, I can 
possibly contribute as much influence as any other onS man. I say this not 
from egotism or vainorlory, but merely as a deduction from a p^.ain analysis 
of the polidcal forces which have been at work in the country for five years 
past, and v»hich have been signiflcantly shown in two great National Con- 
ventions. I accept it as one cf the happiest circumsLancuS connected with 
this affair that in almng my political fortunes with yours — or rather for 
the time mergin^j mine in yours — my heart goes v.dih my head, and 
that I carry to you not only political support but per.-onal and devoted 
friendship. I can but regard it as somewhar remarkable that two men 
of the same age, entering Congress at the same time, infl^uenced by the 
same aims and cherishing the same ambitions, should never, for a 
single moment in eighteen years of close intimacy, have had a mis- 
understanding or a coolness, and that our f-i-ndship has steadily grov/n 
with our growth and strengthened with our strength. 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 



285 



It is this fact vvhich has led me to the conclusion embodied in 
this letter; for however much, my dear Garfield, I might admire you 
as a statesman^ would not enter your Cabinet if I did not believe in 
you as a man and love you as a friend. 

Always faithfully yours, 

^' JAMES G. BLAINE." 

Mr. Blaine entered upon the duties of this im- 
portant office immediately after the inauguration 
of the President in March, 1881. In this new 
sphere of duty he distinguished himself by the 
aggressive earnestness with which he strove to 
uphold and to promote American interests every- 
where. It was his aim to maintain the dignity of 
the Am.erican name and the honor of the Ameri- 
can flag in every part of the globe ; to give most 
ample protection to American citizens, Vv^herever 
they might be in foreign parts ; to extend the 
commercial interests of the country as greatly as 
possible ; and especially to encourage a closer re- 
lationship and greater unity of interests between 
the various nations of Central and South America 
and the United States. It was his aim to exert 
the influence of the United States so as to put an 
end to the frequent wars and revolutions in those 
Southern Republics, and at the same time to 
establish closer and more extensive trade relations 
with them. He believed that the United States 
should exert greater commercial and political in- 
fluences in South America than Eno-land or anv 
European power, and he looked with disfavor 
and distrust upon the many intrigues and 



286 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



aa-aressions In that direction of which various 

oo 

European powers were guilty. 

In connection with this subject a controversy 
soon arose with England over the neutrality of 
the proposed Panama Canal. Acting under ?^Ir. 
Blaine's advice, President Garfield reminded the 
powers of Europe that the United States had 
secured exclusive rights in the country through 
which the canal was to be constructed, and that 
the proposal of the European povrers to guarantee 
the neutrality of the work would not only be futile 
but actually offensive to this country. It was 
necessary that the United States should take the 
initiative in any such guarantee. In his inaugural 
address, prepared doubtless after consultation 
with Mr. Blaine, President Garfield reasserted the 
doctrine of his predecessor, that it was the right 
and duty of the United States to maintain such 
supervision over any such canal as would effectu- 
ally protect its own interests. The Clayton- 
Bulwer treaty of 1S50, between the United 
States and England, made certain provisions for 
the control of the canal which would practically 
place it exclusively in England's hand. These 
clauses ]\Ir. Blaine now unhesitatingly proposed 
to abrogate. In an elaborate letter on the subject, 
to Mr. Lowell, the American Minister to England, 
he stated the American side of the case with 
perfectly unanswerable logic, and showed himself 
an easy master of the ablest British diplomats. 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 



287 



'This letter," said Mr. George William Curtis, 
in Harper s Weekly, — a critic never noted for 
partiality toward Mr. Blaine, — ''is a temperate and 
dignified document, stating our position with 
blended spirit and courtesy and decision. It is 
capitally adapted to meet any such proposition as 
a joint European protectorate, and it is another 
illustration of the skill and ability with which Mr. 
Blaine has managed the department confided to 
him. tie has what may be called the American 
instinct, an essential quality in our Foreign Secre- 
tary, yet restrained in its official expression by an 
equally American tact and good sense." 

Earnest efforts w^ere made by Mr. Blaine to 
conclude by an honorable peace the deplorable 
and disastrous war between Chili and Peru. To 
this end tw^o special envoys, William H. Trescot 
and Walker Blaine, were sent thither. Before 
they arrived there, however, Mr. Blaine resigned 
his office, and his successor, Mr. Frelinghuysen, 
so altered the policy of the Department as to m^ke 
their mJssion fruitless. 

Throuorhout the brief administration of Presi- 
dent Garfield, Mr. Blaine was not only Secretary 
of State, but also the President's most trusted 
adviser and closest personal friend. He was his 
companion on that fatal morning of July 2, 1881, 
when the President, on his v/ay to join his family 
at their summer home, was shot by a wretched 
madman. Through the weary months of illness 



288 



JAMES G: BLAINE. 



that followed, he was among the most solicitous 

watchers at Garfield's bedside ; and he was one of 
the most sincere mourners when, on September 
19th, death ended the illustrious sufferer's long 
struggle. Chester A. Arthur then succeeded to 
the Presidency, and at his request, Mr. Blaine 
retained for a time the State portfolio. Differences 
of opinion gradually arose between them, how- 
ever, and on December 19, 1881, Mr. Blaine 
tendered his resio-nation and retired from the 
office he had filled with such eminent distinction. 
He was succeeded by the Hon. Frederick L. 
Frelinghuysen, formerly United States Senator 
from New Jersey. 

During his two months of service in President 
Arthur's Cabinet, Mr. Blaine performed the act 
for wdiich his first term as Secretary of State will 
be most remembered. This was the inviting of 
all the nations of Central and South America to 
a Peace Congress, to be held at Washington. 
This was in accordance with a plan to which Mr. 
Blaine and President Garfield had devoted much 
thought, and on which they had been fully agreed. 
It was intended to effect that streno^theninof of 
amicable relations, and that harmonizing and uni- 
fication of interests, both commercial and political, 
which Mr. Blaine so earnestly desired and which 
were, unquestionably, calculated in the highest 
degree to promote the welfare of all the nations 
concerned. The following letter, addressed by 



CHESTER A. ARTHUR 



SECRETARY OF STATE, 



291 



Mr. Blaine to the United States Minister to 
Mexico, shows the tone of the invitation thus ex- 
tended to the various nations : 

" Department of State, 
" Washington, November 29, 1881, 
Sir : — The attitude of the United States with regard to the question of 
general peace on the American continent is well known through its persis- 
tent efforts for years past to avert the evils of warfare, or, the efforts failing, 
to bring positive conflicts to an end through pacific counsels, or the advo- 
cacy of impartial arbitration. This attitude has been consistently main- 
tained, and always with such fairness as to leave no room for the imputing 
to our Government any motive except the humane and disinterested one of 
saving the kindred States on the American continent from the burdens of 
war. The position of the United States as the leading power of the New 
World might well give to its Government the claim to authoritative utterance 
for the purpose of quieting discord among its neighbors, with all of whom 
the most friendly relation exists. Nevertheless, the good offices of this 
Government are not, and have not, at any time, been tendered with a show 
of compulsion or dictation* but only as exhibiting the solicitous good- will 
of a common friend. 

" For some years past a growing disposition has been manifested by cer- 
tain States of Central and South America to refer disputes affecting grave 
questions of international relationship and boundaries to arbitration rather 
than to the sword. It has been on several such occasions a source of pro- 
found satisfaction to the Government of the United States to see that this 
country is, in a large measure, looked to by all the American powers as 
their friend and mediator. 

" The just and impartial counsel of the President in such cases has never 
been withheld, and his efforts have been rewarded by the prevention of 
sanguinary strife, or angry contentions between people whom we regard as 
brethren. 

" The existence of this growing tendency convinces the President that the 
time is ripe for a proposal that shall enlist the good- will and active co- 
operation of all the States of the Western Hemisphere, both North and 
South, in the interest of humanity, and for the common weal of nations. He 
conceives that none of the governments of America can be less alive than 
our own to the dangers and horrors of a State war, and especially of war be- 
tween kinsmen. He is sure that none of the chiefs of governments on the 
continent can be less sensitive than he is to the sacred duty of making every 
endeavor to do away with the chances of fratricidal strife. And he looks 
17 



292 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



with hopeful confidence to such active assistance from them as will help to 
show the broadness of our common humanity, and the strength of the ties 
which bind us all together as a great and harmonious system of American 
commonwealths. 

" Impressed by these views, the President extends to all the independent 
countries of North and South America an earnest invitation to participate in 
a general congress to be held in the city of Washington on the 24th day of 
November, iSS:, for the purpose of considering and discussing the 
meihods of preventing war between the nations of America. He desires 
that the attention of the congress shall be strictly confined to this one great 
object, that its sole aim shall be to seek away of permanently averting the 
horrors of cruel and bloody combat between countries oftenest of one blood 
and speech; or the even worse calamity of internal commotion and civil 
strife ; that it shall regard the burdensome and far-reaching consequences 
of such struggles, the legacies of exhausted finances, of opprsssive debt, of 
onerous taxation, of ruined cities, of paralyzed industries, of devastated 
fields, of ruthless conscription, of the slaughter of men, of the grief of the 
widow and orphan, of embittered resentments that long survive those who 
provoked them, and heavily afflict the innocent generations that come after. 

The President is especially desirous to have it understood that in put- 
ting forth this invitation, the United States does not assume the position of 
counselling, or attempting through the voice of the congress to counsel, any 
determinate solution of existing questions which may now divide any of the 
countries of America. Such questions cannot properly come before the 
congress. Its mission is higher. It is to provide for the interest of all in 
the future, not to settle the individual differences of the present. For this 
reason especially, the President has indicated a day for the assembling of 
the congress so far in the future as to leave good ground for hope, that by 
the time named, the present situation on the South Pacific coast will be 
happily terminated, and that those engaged in the contest may take peace- 
able part in the discussion and solution of the general question affecting in 
an equal degree the well-being of all. 

''It seems also desirable to disclaim, in advance, any purpose on the part 
of the United States to prejudge the issues to be presented to the congress, 
ft is far from the intent of this Government to appear before the congress 
as in any sense the protector of its neighbors, or the predestined and neces- 
sary arbitrator of their disputes. The United States will enter into the 
deliberations of the congress on the same footing with the other powers 
represented, and with the loyal determination to approach any proposed 
solution not only in its own interest, but as a single member among many 
co-ordi. ate and co-equal States, so far as the influence of this Government 
may be conciliating, whatever conflicting interests of blood or goveniment 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 



or historical tradition may necessarily come together in response to a call 
embracing such vast and diverse elements. 

" You will present these views to the Minister of Foreign Relations of 
Mexico, enlarging, if need be, in such terms as will readily occur to you, 
upon the great mission which it is in the power of the proposed congress to 
accomplish in the interest of humanity, and upon the firm purpose of the 
United States to maintain a position of the most absolute and impartial 
friendship toward all. You will thereupon tender to his Excellency, the 
President of the Mexican Republic, a formal invitation to send two commis- 
sioners to the congress, provided with such powers and instructions on 
behalf of their government as will enable them to consider the questions 
brought before that body within the limit of submission contemplated by the 
invitation. 

" The United States, as well as the other powers, will in like manner be 
represented by two commissioners, so that impartiality and equality will be 
amply secured in the proceedings of the congress. 

" In delivering this invitation through the Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
you will read this despatch to him, and leave with him a copy, intimating 
that an answer is desired by this Government as promptly as the just con- 
sideration of so important a proposition will permit. 

" I am. Sir, your obedient servant, 

JAMES G. BLAINE." 

Three weeks after the issuing of this letter Mr. 
Blaine was succeeded in the State Department 
by Mr. Frelinghuysen. The latter very materi- 
ally changed the Government's foreign policy, 
and, for one thing, annulled the arrangements for 
the Peace Congress, and revoked the invitations, 
so that that body did not convene. At this the 
people of the United States very generally felt 
much regret. Mr. Blaine regretted it also, on 
public grounds, and he naturally regarded it as a 
personal grievance, especially since his political 
enemies quickly and industriously spread abroad 
all sorts of false and malicious rumors regarding 



/AJf£S G. BLAIKE. 



his object in summoning the congress. He was 
charged witk a ''jingo'" pohcy ; with seeking to 
bully the weaker American powers, and even to 
compel their annexation to the United States; 
with trying to em_broil the United States in a 
foreign war ; and actually with corrupt motives of 
personal gain. The baser of these calumnies 
>dr. Blaine could afford to treat with contempt. 
But on the higher grounds of public policy he 
felt presently constrained to vindicate his course 
by addressing to President Arthur, on January 3. 
1882, the following letter: 

To the Preside7it of the Unite. i States : — The suggestion of a congress 
of all American Nations to assemble in the city of Washington for the pur- 
pose of agreeing on such a basis of ai-bitration for international troubles as 
would remove all possibiliiy of war on the Western Hemisphere was 
warmly approved by your predecessor. His assassination July 2d pre- 
vented his issuing the invitation to the American States. After your acces- 
sion to the Presidency I acquainted you with the project, and submitted ic 
you that draft for such an invitation. You received the suggestion wit'i 
most appreciative consideration, and, after carefully examining the form of 
invitation, directed it to be sent. It was accordingly despatched in No- 
vember to the independent Governments of America, North and South, 
including all, from the Empire of Brazil to the smallest Republic. In a 
communication addressed by the present Secretary of State, the ninth of 
last month, to Mr. Trescot, and recently sent to the Senate, I was 
greatly surprised to find a proposition looking to the annulment of these 
invitations, and I was still more surprised when I read the reasons 
assigned. I quote Mr. Frehnghuysen's language : * The United States is 
at peace with all nations of the earth, and the President wishes here- 
after to determine whether it will conduce to the general peace, which 
he would cherish and promote, for this Government to enter into negoti- 
ations and consultation for the promotion of peace vrith selected friendly 
nationalities withoi^t extending the line of confidence to other people 
with whom the United States is on equally friendly terms. If such par- 
tial confidence would create jealousy and ill-v/ill, peace, the object sought 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 



295 



by such consultation, would not be promoted. The principles controlling 
the relations of the Republics of this hemisphere with other nationalities 
may, on investigation, be found to be so well established that little would 
be gained at this time by reopening the subject, which is not novel.' If 
I correctly apprehend the meaning of these words, it is that we might 
offend some European powers if we should hold in the United States a 
Congress of ' selected nationalities ' of Araerican. 

" This is certainly a new position for the United States to assume, and 
one which I earnestly beg you will not permit this Government to occupy. 
European powers assemble in congress whenever an object seems to them 
of sufficient importance to justify it. I have never heard of their consulting 
the Government of the United States in regard to the propriety of their so 
assembling, nor have I ever known their inviting an American representa- 
tive to be present, nor would there, in my judgment, be any good reason 
for their so doing. Two Presidents of the United States in the year 1 88 1 
adjudge it to be expedient that American powers should meet in congress 
for the sole purpose of agreeing upon some basis for arbitration of differ- 
ences that may arise between them, and for the prevention, as far as possible, 
of wars in the future. If that movement is now to be aiTested for fear it 
may give offence in Europe, the voluntary humiliation of this Government 
could not be more complete, unless we should petition European Govern- 
ments for the privilege of holding the congress. 

I cannot conceive how the United States could be placed in a less 
enviable position than would be secured by sending in November a cordial 
invitation to all American Governments to meet in Washington for the sole 
purpose of concocting measures of peace, and in January recalling the 
invitation for fear it might create 'jealousy and ill-will' on the part of 
monarchical Governments in Europe. It would be difficult to devise a more 
effective mode of making enemies of the American Governments, and ift 
would certainly not add to our prestige in the European world. Nor can I 
see, Mr. President, how European Governments should feel * jealousy and 
ill-will ' toward the United States because of an effort on its part to assure 
lasting peace between 'the nations of America, unless indeed it be the 
interest of the European powers that the American nations should at inter- 
vals fall into war, and bring reproach on Republican government. But 
from that very circumstance I see an additional and powerful motive for 
American Governments to be at peace among themselves. The United 
States is indeed at peace with all the world, as Mr. Frelinghuysen well 
says; but there are, and have been, serious troubles between other Amer- 
ican Republics. Peru, Chili and Bolivia have been for more than two years 
engaged in a desperate conflict. It was the fortunate intervention of the 
United States last spring that averted war between Chili and the Argentine 



296 



JAMES G, BLATNE. 



Republic. Guatemala is at this moment asking the United States to inter- 
pose its good ofnces with Mexico to keep off war. 

" These important facts were all communicated in your late message 
to Congress. It is the existence or menace of these wars that influenced 
President ' Garfield, and, as I suppose, innuenced yourself, to desire a 
friendly conference of all nations of America to devise methods of perma- 
nent peace and consequent prosperity for all. Shall the United States now 
turn back, hold aloof, and refuse to exert its great moral power for the 
advantage of its weaker neighb :rs ? If you have not formally and fully 
recalled the invitation to a Peace Congress. Mr. President, I beg you to 
consider well the effect of so doing. The invitation was not mine. It was 
yours. I performed only the part of Secretary to advise and draft. You 
spoke in the name of the United States to each of the independent nations 
of America. To revoke that invitation for any cause would be embarras' 
sing; to revoke it for avovred fear of * jealousy and ill-will' on the part of 
European powers would appeal as little to American pride as to American 
hospitality. Those you have invited may decline, and, having now cause 
to doubt their welcome, will perhaps do so. This would break up the con- 
gress, but it would not touch our dignity. Beyond the philanthropic and 
Christian ends to be obtained by the American conference, devoted to 
peace and good-will among men, we Riight \veil hope for material advant- 
ages as a result of a better understanding and closer friendship with the 
nations of America. At present the condition of trade between the United 
States and its American neighbors is unsatisfactory to us, and even de- 
plorable. 

According to the omcial statistics of our own Treasury Department the 
balance against us in that trade last year was 20, 0(X), 000 — a sum greater 
than the yearly product of the gold and silver mines in the United States. 
This vast balance was paid by us in foreign exchange, and a very large 
proportion of it went to England, where shipments of cotton, provisions, and 
breadstuffs supplied the money. If anything should change or check the 
balance in our favor in European trade, our commercial exchanges with 
Spanish America would drain us of cur reserve of geld coin at a rate ex- 
ceeding ^100,000,000 per annum, and would probably precipitate the 
suspension of specie-payment in this country. Such a result at home might 
be worse than a little 'jealousy and ill-will' abroad; I do not say, Mr. 
President, that the holding of a Peace Congress will necessarily change the 
currents of trade, but it will bring us into kindly relations with all the 
American nations; it will promote the reign of peace, and law, and order ; it 
will increase production and consumption and will stimulate the demand 
for articles which American manufacturers can furnish with profit. It will, 
at all events, be a friendly and auspicious beginning in the direction of 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 



297 



American influence and American trade in a large field which we have 
hitherto greatly neglected, and which has been practically monopolized by 
our commercial rivals in Europe. As Mr. Frelingbuysen's despatch 
foreshadowing an abandonment of a Peace Congress is being made public by 
your direction, I deem it a matter of propriety and justice to give this letter 
to the press. I am, Mr. President, with great respect, your ever obedient 
servant, 

"JAMES G. BLAINE." 

The ex-Secretary thus set himself entirely 
right in the minds of all thoughtful and impartial 
observers, and brought not a little reproach and 
ridicule upon those who had frustrated his benefi- 
cent designs. Frustrated his designs were, 
however, for the time ; and the pursuance of his 
policy was postponed until a later date. 

To complete the record of Mr. Blaine's first 
Administration of the State Department, one 
more incident must be mentioned, not otherwise 
significant. Taking advantage of the extremities 
to which Peru was driven in her unequal struggle 
against the aggressive Chilians, certain specu- 
lators sought to press against her various claims 
for enormous sums, based upon the value of the 
discovery of the nitrate and guano deposits in that 
country. As these speculators, or some of them, 
were American citizens, they sought to urge their 
demands through the medium of the State De- 
partment. Their attorney was a person named 
Shipherd, who began to treat the United States 
Government as though it were his partner in the 
business. So offensive was his tone that Mr. 
Blaine was prompted, most properly, to disbar 



298 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



him from further practice before the State Depart- 
ment. This made Shipherd angry, and he 
demanded of Congress an investigation, " mak- 
ing various charges of corruption against Mr. 
Blaine. The investigation was held, and Mr. 
Blaine's enemies tried hard to discredit him, but 
only succeeded in bringing ridicule upon them- 
selves. Mr. Blaine was amply vindicated, and 
Shipherd dropped into obscurity and contempt. 

Quotation of one more document will close this 
brief consideration of one of the most interesting 
periods in the diplomatic history of the United 
States. It is a review of the foreign policy of the 
Garfield Administration, written by the man w^ho 
inspired and directed that policy. It is taken from 
the pages of a Chicago journal, in w^hich it first 
appeared : 

''Augusta, Maine, Sept. i, 1882. 

The foreign policy of President Garfield's Ad- 
ministration had t\NO principal objects in view: 
First, to bring about peace, and prevent future 
wars in North and South America ; second, to 
cultivate such friendly commercial relations with 
all American countries as would lead to a large 
increase in the export trade of the United States, 
by supplying those fabrics in wdiich we are abun- 
dantly able to compete with the manufacturing 
nations of Europe. 

To attain the second object the first must be 
accomplished. It w^ould be idle to attempt the 



SE CRE TA RV OF S 7\4 TE. 299 

development and enlargement of our trade with 
the countries of North and South America if that 
trade were Hable at any unforeseen moment to be 
violently interrupted by such wars as that which 
for three years has engrossed and almost en- 
gulfed Chili, Peru and Bolivia ; as that which was 
barely averted by the friendly offices of the United 
States between Chili and the Argentine Republic ; 
as that which has been postponed by the same 
good offices, but not decisively abandoned, be- 
tween Mexico and Guatemala ; as that which is 
threatened between Brazil and Uruguay ; as that 
which is even now foreshadowed between Brazil 
and the Argentine States. Peace is essential to 
commerce, is the very life of honest trade, is the 
solid basis of international prosperity ; and yet 
there is no part of the world where a resort to 
arms is so prompt as in the Spanish American 
Republics. Those Republics have grown out of 
the old Colonial divisions, formed from capricious 
grants to favorites by Royal charter, and their 
boundaries are in many cases not clearly defined, 
and consequently afford the basis of continual 
disputes, breaking forth too often in open war. 
To induce the Spanish American States to adopt 
some peaceful mode of adjusting their frequently 
recurring contentions was regarded by the late 
President as one of the most honorable and useful 
ends to which the diplomacy of the United States 
could contribute — useful especially to those States 



300 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



by securing permanent peace within all their bor- 
ders, and useful to our own country by affording 
a coveted opportunity for extending its commerce 
and securing enlarged fields for our products and 
manufactures. 

Instead of friendly intervention here and there, 
patching up a treaty between two countries to- 
day, securing a truce between two others to-mor- 
row, it was apparent to the President that a more 
comprehensive plan should be adopted if war was 
to cease in the Western Hemisphere. It was 
evident that certain European powers had in the 
past been interested in promoting strife between 
the Spanish American countries, and might be so 
interested in the future, while the interest of the 
United States was wholly and always on the side 
of peace with all our American neighbors, and 
peace between them all. 

''It was therefore the President's belief that 
mere incidental and partial adjustments failed to 
attain the desired end, and that a common agree- 
ment of peace, permanent in its character and 
continental in its extent, should, if possible, be 
secured. To effect this end it had been resolved, 
before the fatal shot of July 2d, to invite all the in- 
dependent governments of North and South 
America to meet in a Peace Congress at Wash- 
ington. The date to be assigned was the 15th of 
March, 1882, and the invitations would have been 
issued directly after the New England tour, which 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 



301 



the President was not permitted to make. Nearly 
six months later, on November 2 2d, President Gar- 
field's successor issued the invitations for the 
Peace Congress in the same spirit and scope and 
with the same Hmitations and restrictions that had 
been originally designed. 

*'As soon as the project was understood in 
South America it received a most cordial appro- 
val, and some of the countries, not following the 
leisurely routine of diplomatic correspondence, 
made haste to accept the invitation: There can 
be no doubt that within a brief period all the na- 
tions invited would have formally signified th^ir 
readiness to attend the congress ; but in six weeks 
after the invitations had gone to the several coii n- 
tries. President A.rthur caused them to be re- 
called, or at least suspended. The subject v"as 
afterward referred to Congress in a special mes- 
sage, in which the President ably vindicateci his 
Constitutional right to assemble the Peace I'on- 
gress, but expressed a desire that the legislative 
department of the Government should give an 
opinion upon the expediency of the step before 
the congress should be allowed to convene. 
Meanwhile the nations that received the invita- 
tions were in an embarrassing situation ; for afrer 
they were asked by the President to come, tb^.y 
found that the matter had been reconsidered and 
referred to another department of the Govern- 
ment. This change was universally accepted as 



302 



JAMES 6\ BLAINE. 



a practical though indirect abandonment of the 
project, for it was not from the first probable that 
Congress would take any action whatever upon 
the subject. The good-will and welcome of the 
invitation would be destroyed by a long debate 
in the Senate and House, in which the question ^ 
would necessarily become intermixed with per- 
sonal and party politics, and the project would 
be ultimately w^'ecked from the same cause 
and by the same process that destroyed the use- 
fulness of the Panama Congress, more than fifty 
years ago, when Mr. Clay was Secretary of State. 
The time for Congressional action would have 
been after the Peace Conference had closed its 
labors. The conference could not agree upon 
anything that would be binding upon the United 
States, unless assented to as a treaty by the Sen- 
ate, or enacted into a law bv both branches. The 
assembling of the Peace Conference, as President 
Arthur so v/ell demonstrated, w^as not in deroga- 
tion of any right or prerogative of the Senate or 
House. The money necessary for the expenses 
of the conference— which would not have ex- 
ceeded $iopoo — could not, with reason or pro- 
priety, have been refused by Congress. If it had 
been refused, patriotism and philanthropy w^ould 
have promptly supplied it. 

''The Spanish-American States are in special 
need of the help which the Peace Congress would 
afford them. They require external pressure to 



SECRE TAR V OF STA TE. 



keep them from war. When at war they require 
external pressure to bring them to peace. Their 
outbreaks are not only frequent, but are sangui- 
nary and sometimes cruel. The inhabitants of 
those countries are a brave people, belonging to 
a race that has always been brave, descended of 
men that have always been proud. They are of 
hot temper, quick to take affront, ready to avenge 
a wrong, whether real or fancied. They are at 
the same time generous and chivalrous, and though 
tending for years past to estrangement and aliena- 
tion from us, they would promptly respond to any 
advance made by the Great Republic of the 
North, as they have for two generations termed 
our Government. The moral influence upon the 
Spanish-American people of such an international 
assembly as the Peace Congress, called by the 
invitation and meeting under the auspices of the 
United States, would have proved beneficent and 
far-reaching. It would have raised the standard 
of their civilization. It would have turned their 
attention to the things of peace ; and the conti- 
nent, whose undeveloped wealth amazed Hum- 
boldt, might have had a new life given to it, a 
new and splendid career opened to its inhabitants. 

''Such friendly interventions as the proposed 
Peace Congress, and as the attempt to restore 
peace between Chili and Peru, fall within the line 
of both duty and interest on the part of the United 
States. Nations, like individuals, often require 



304 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



the aid of a common friend to restore relations of 
amity. Peru and Chili are in deplorable need of 
a wise and powerful mediator. Though exhausted 
by war, they are unable to make peace, and, un- 
less they shall be aided by the intervention of a 
friend, political anarchy and social disorder will 
come to the conquered, and evils scarcely less 
serious to the conqueror. Our own Government 
cannot take the ground that it will not offer 
friendly intervention to setde troubles between 
American countries, unless at the same time it 
freely concedes to European governments the 
right of such intervention, and thus consents to a 
practical destruction of the Monroe doctrine and 
an unlimited increase of European and monarch- 
ical influence on this continent. The late special 
envoy to Peru and Chili, Mr. Trescot, gives it as 
his deliberate and published conclusion that if the 
instructions under vrhich he set out upon his mis- 
sion had not been revoked, peace between those 
angry belligerents would have been established as 
the result of his labors — necessarily to the great 
benefit of the United States, If our Government 
does not resume its efforts to secure peace in 
South America, some European government wall 
be forced to perform that friendly ofSce. The 
United States cannot play between nations the 
part of the dog in the manger. W e must perform 
the duty of humane intervention ourselves, or 
give way to foreign governments that are 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 



willing to accept the responsibility of the great 
trust and secure the enhanced influence and num- 
berless advantages resulting from such a philan- 
thropic and beneficent course. 

''A most significant and important result would 
have followed the assembling of the Peace Con- 
gress. A friendship and an intimacy would have 
been established between the States of North and 
South America, which would have demanded and 
enforced a closer commercial connection. A 
movement in the near future, as the legitimate 
outgrowth of assured peace, would, in all proba- 
bility, have been a great commercial conference at 
the city of Mexico or Rio Janeiro, whose delibera- 
tions would be directed to a better system of trade 
on the two continents. To such a conference the 
Dominion of Canada could properly be asked 
to send representatives, as that government is 
allowed by Great Britain a very large liberty in 
regulating its commercial relations. In the Peace 
Congress, to be composed of independent gov- 
ernments, the Dominion could not have taken any 
part, and was consequently not invited. From 
this trade conference of the two continents, the 
United States could hardly have failed to gain 
great advantages. At present the commercial 
relations of this country with the Spanish-American 
countries, both continental and insular, are un- 
satisfactory and unprofitable— indeed, those rela- 
tions are absolutely oppressive to the financial 



3o6 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



interests of the Government and people of the 
United States. In our current exchanges, it re- 
quires about $120,000,000 to pay the balance 
which Spanish America brings against us every 
year. This amount is 50 per cent, more than the 
average annual product of the gold and silver 
mines of the United States during the past five 
years. This vast sum does not of course go to 
Spanish America in coin, but it goes across the 
ocean in coin or its equivalent to pay European 
countries for manufactured articles which they fur- 
nish to Spanish America — a large proportion of 
which should be furnished by the manufacturers 
of the United States. 

''At this point of the argument the free trader 
appears and declares that our protective tariff de- 
stroys our power of competition with European 
countries, and that if we will abolish protection we 
shall soon have South American trade. The 
answer is not sufficient, for to-day there are many 
articles which we can send to South America and 
sell as cheaply as European manufacturers can 
furnish them. It is idle, of course, to make this 
statement to the genuine apostle of free trade 
and the implacable enemy of protection, for the 
great postulate of his argument, the foundation of 
his creed, is that nothing can be made as cheaply 
in A.merica as in Europe. Nevertheless, facts are 
stubborn and the hard figures of arithmetic can- 
not be satisfactorily answered by airy figures of 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 



speech. The truth remains that the coarser de- 
scriptions of cottons and cotton prints, boots and 
shoes, ordinary household furniture, harness for 
draft animals, agricultural implements of all kinds, 
doors, sashes and blinds, locks, bolts and hinges, 
silverware, plated-ware, wooden-ware, ordinary 
paper and paper hangings, common vehicles, or- 
dinary window-glass and glassware, rubber goods, 
coal oils, lard oils, kerosene, white lead, lead pipe, 
and articles in which lead is a chief component, 
can be and are produced as cheaply in the United 
States as in any other part of the world. The 
list of such articles might be lengthened by the 
addition of those classed as ''notions,'' but 
enough only are given to show that this country 
would, with proper commercial arrangements, ex- 
port much more largely than it now does to 
Spanish America. 

'Tn the trade relations of the world it does not 
follow that mere ability to produce as cheaply as 
another nation insures a division of an established 
market, or, indeed, any participation in it. France 
manufactures many articles as cheaply as England 
— some articles at even less cost. Portugal lies 
nearer to France than to England, and the ex- 
pense of transporting the French fabric to the 
Portuguese market is therefore less than the 
transportation of English fabric. And yet Great 
Britain has almost a monopoly in the trade of 
Portugal. The same condition applies, though in 

l8 



JAMES G, BLAINE. 



a less degree, in the trade of Turkey, Syria and 
Egypt, which England holds to a much greater 
extent than any of the other European nations 
that are able to produce the same 'fabric as 
cheaply. If it be said in answer that England has 
special trade relations by treaty with Portugal 
and special obligations binding the other countries, 
the ready answer is that she has no more favor- 
able position with regard to those countries than 
can be readily and easily acquired by the United 
States with respect to all the countries of America. 
That end will be reached whenever the United 
States desires it, and wills it, and is ready to take 
the steps necessary to secure it. At present the 
trade with Spanish America runs so strongly in 
channels adverse to us, that, besides our inability 
to furnish manufactured articles, we do not get 
the profit on our own raw products that are shipped 
there. Our petroleum reaches m.ost of the Span- 
ish-American ports after twice crossing the 
Atlantic, paying often a better profit to the 
European middle-man, who handles it, than it 
does to the producer of the oil in the northwestern 
counties of Pennsylvania. Flour and pork from 
the West reach Cuba by way of Spain, and though 
Vs^e buy and consume ninety per cent, of the total 
products of Cuba, almost that proportion of 
her purchases are made in Europe — made, of 
course, with money furnished directly from our 
pockets. 



SECRETARY OF STATE, 



As our exports to Spanish America grow less, 
as European imports constantly grow larger, the 
balance against us will show an annual increase, 
and will continue to exhaust our supply of the 
precious metals. We are increasing our imports 
from South America, and the millions we annually 
pay for coffee, wool, hides, guano, cinchona, 
caoutchouc, cabinet woods, dye woods and other 
articles, go for the ultimate benefit of European 
manufacturers who take the gold from us and 
send their fabrics to Spanish America. If we could 
send our fabrics, our gold would stay at home and 
our general prosperity would be sensibly increased. 
But so long as we repel Spanish America, so long 
as we leave her to cultivate intimate relations with 
Europe alone, so long our trade relations will re- 
main unsatisfactory and even embarrassing. 
Those countries sell to us very heavily. They 
buy from us very lightly. And the amount they 
bring us in debt each year is larger than the 
heaviest aggregate balance of trade we ever have 
against us in the worst of times. The average 
balance against us for the whole world in the five 
most adverse years we ever experienced, was 
about one hundred millions of dollars. This 
plainly shows that in our European exchanges 
there is always a balance in our favor and that our 
chief deficiency arises from our mal-adjusted com- 
mercial relations with Spanish America. It follows 
that if our Spanish-American trade were placed 



212 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



on a better and more equitable foundation, it 
would be almost impossible even in years most 
unfavorable to us, to bring us in debt to the world. 

''With such heavy purchases as we are com- 
pelled to make from Spanish America, it could 
hardly be expected that we should be able to 
adjust the entire account by exports. But the 
balance against us of one hundred and twenty 
millions in gold coin is far too large, and in time 
of stringency is a standing menace of final disaster. 
It should not be forgotten that every million 
dollars of products or fabrics that we sell in 
Spanish America is a million dollars in gold saved 
to our own country. The immediate profit is to 
the producer and exporter, but the entire country 
realizes a gain in the ease and affluence of the 
money market which is insured by keeping our 
gold at home. The question involved is so large, 
the object to be achieved is so great, that no effort 
on the part of the Government to accomplish it 
could be too earnest or too lonor continued. 

'Tt is only claimed for the Peace Congress, 
designed under the Administration of Garfield, 
that it was an important and impressive step on 
the part of the United States toward closer rela- 
tionship with our continental neighbors. The 
present tendency in those countries is toward 
Europe, and it is a lamentable fact that their 
people are not so near to us in feeling as they 
were sixty years ago when they threw off the 



SECRE TAR V OF STA TE. 3 1 3 

yoke of Spanish tyranny. We were then a weak 
Republic of but ten milHons, but we did not 
hesitate to recognize the independence of the 
new governments, even at the risk of war with 
Spain. Our foreign policy at that time was 
specially designed to extend our influence in the 
Western Hemisphere, and the statesmen of that 
era — the era of DeWitt Clinton and the younger 
Adams, of Clay and of Crawford, of Webster and 
Calhoun, of \^an Buren and Benton, of Jackson 
and of Edward Livingston — were always coura- 
geous in the inspiring measures which they advo- 
cated for the expansion of our commercial 
dominion. 

''Three score years have passed. The power 
of the Republic in many directions has grown 
beyond all anticipation, but we have relatively 
lost ground in som.e great fields of enterprise. 
We have added thousands of miles to our ocean 
front, but our commerce has fallen off, and from 
ardent friendship with Spanish America we have 
drifted into indifference if not into coldness. It is 
but one step further to reach a condition of posi- 
tive unfriendliness, v^^hich m^ay end in what 
would be equivalent to a commercial alliance 
against us. Already one of the most dangerous 
of movements — that of a European guarantee 
and guardianship of the Interoceanic Canal — is 
suggested and urged upon the Great Foreign 
Powers by representatives of a South American 



314 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

count^\^ If these tendencies are to be averted, 
if Spanish-American friendship is to be regained, 
if the commercial empire that legitimately belongs 
to us is to be ours, we must not lie idle and 
witness its transfer to others. If we would recon- 
quer it, a great first step is to be taken. It is the 
first step that costs. It is also the first step that 
counts. Can there be suggested a wiser step 
than the Peace Congress of the two Americas, 
that was devised under Garfield, and had the 
weight of his great name ? 

''In no event could harm have resulted in the 
assembling of the Peace Congress ; failure was 
next to impossible. Success might be regarded 
as certain. The subject to be discussed was 
peace, and how it can be permanently preserved 
in North and South America. The labors of the 
Congress Vv^ould have probably ended in a well- 
digested svstem of arbitration, under w^hich all 
ti-oubles between American States could be quick- 
ly, effectually and satisfactorily adjusted. Such a 
consummation would have been worth a great 
struggle and a great sacrifice. It could have 
been reached without any struggle and would 
have involved no sacrifice. It was within our 
grasp. It was ours for the asking. It would 
have been a signal victory of philanthropy over 
the selfishness of human ambition ; a complete 
triumph of Christian principles as applied to the 
affairs of Nations. It would have reflected enduring 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 



honor on our new country, and would have im- 
parted a new spirit and a new brotherhood to 
all America. Nor would its influence beyond the 
sea have been small. The example of seventeen 
independent Nations solemnly agreeing to abolish 
the arbitrament of the sword, and to settle every 
dispute by peaceful methods of adjudication, would 
have exerted an influence to the utmost confines 
of civilization, and upon the generations of men 
yet to come. 

James G. Blaine.'* 



^1 



CHAPTER XIL 

IX MEMORIAM. 

The Eulogy on Garfield — An Impressive Scene in the Hall of the House 
of Representatives at Washington — A Distinguished Audience in 
Attendance — Eminent Fitness of the Speaker to the Theme — Memo- 
ries of Sixteen Years Before — .An Eloquent Review of the Career of 
America's Second Martyr President — The Full Text of the Oration. 

Seldom has it fallen to the lot of man to par- 
ticipate in a more impressive ceremony than that 
of February 27, 1882, in the Hall of the House 
of Representatives at Washington. Briefly stated, 
the occasion was that of the delivery of the official 
eulogy upon the late President, James A. Garfield, 
by James G. Blaine, in the presence of the Con- 
gress and the chief Executive and Judicial officers 
of State. This perfunctory record, however, 
indicates, except by suggestion, only an infinitesi- 
mal fraction of the interest attached to the event 

The audience assembled on that day comprised 
the members of both Houses of Congress, the 
President and his Cabinet, the Supreme Court, 
many official representatives of foreign govern- 
ments, and a great number of the most distin- 
guished men and v/omxen in all walks of American 
life. The purpose was to do honor, by the delivery 
of a formal eulogium, to the memory of one of 
316 



IN MEMORIAM. 



the most loved and honored American statesmen 
of the age, who less than a year and a half ago 
had been elected President of the Republic, who 
after a brilliant administration extending over only 
one-twelfth of the legal time allotted term of office, 
had been stricken down by the murderous hand 
of a madman, and who, after a painful lingering 
of many weeks, had gone to his grave amid the 
tears and lamentations of the entire nation, and 
amid the respectful sympathy of the whole civilized 
world, leaving behind him a record of public ser- 
vice, of personal charm, of patriotic achievement, 
of manly virtue, seldom rivalled in all the pages 
of American history. This eulogium was miost 
appropriately to be pronounced by the man v/ho 
was that martyr President's most eminent and 
most trusted councillor of State, and most in- 
timate and beloved friend, and who was, moreover, 
himself one of the most conspicuous and esteemed 
of American statesmen. 

The capital city of the Republic was flooded on 
that day with a wealth of genial sunshine. Busi- 
ness houses everywhere were closed in token of 
respect to the day, and the national colors were 
everywhere floating at half mast. All through the 
bright hours of the morning, throngs of people, on 
foot and in all sorts of equipages, were traversing 
the stately avenues converging on the great white 
Capitol. Long before the doors of the Hall of 
the House of Representatives were open, a 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 

multitude had gathered about them large enough 
to fill many times all the available space. A few 
moments after the opening of the doors all the 
seats save those reserved for specially invited 
guests were occupied. It Vv^as an audience dis- 
tinguished but solemn in appearance, nearly 
every one being dressed in funereal black. There 
were no special decorations in the hall except a 
large portrait of Garfield. All the litter of books 
and papers which usually strews the floor and 
desks had been removed. Special rows of chairs 
had been placed for the President, Cabinet, 
Senators, and members of the Diplomatic Corps 
and also for the members of the Ohio Legislature 
and various other guests. The Marine Band, 
stationed in the corridor outside, played appro- 
priate music. 

Conspicuous among the special guests was the 
venerable George Bancroft, who sixteen years 
before had been the orator of the day on a similar 
occasion, when for the first time in American 
history the Congress assembled to honor the 
memory of a murdered Chief Magistrate. W. 
W. Corcoran was there, the aged philanthropist 
who had done so much to adorn the nation's 
capital. There were also Cyrus W. Field, the 
projector and constructor of the Atlantic Cable ; 
William T. Sherman, the General of the American 
army, with his gallant comrades, Sheridan, Han- 
cock, Howard, and Meigs ; Admiral Porter and a 



ME A/OR /AM. 



distinguished company of officers of the TXavy : 
the members of the Diplomatic Corps, resplendent 
in Court uniforms ; the members of the Supreme 
Court, in their gowns of office ; and the President 
of the United States and the members of his 
Cabinet. All these, together with the Senators and 
Representatives, displayed badges of mourning. 

Sixteen years before, as we have said, on a 
Monday in February, the Capitol had seen a 
similar gathering in memory of Abraham Lincoln. 
On that occasion the eulogy was delivered by 
George Bancroft, who was here present. Nine- 
teen members only of this Congress had been 
members then. Garfield had been, at that time, 
a member of the House — only thirty-four years 
old, but already a conspicuous leader of his party. 
James G. Blaine had also then been a Represen- 
tative, rapidly rising toward the Speakership. 
Roscoe Conkling and Rutherford B. Hayes, Ran- 
dall and Kelley, Kasson, and Voorhees, andi\llison, 
and Dawes, and Morrill, had been members of 
that former House ; and Windom, who was 
Garfield's Secretary of the Treasury. On that 
occasion, Ulysses S. Grant had been present, in 
the uniform of a Lieutenant-General. Jefferson 
Davis was, at that time, still a prisoner in Fortress 
Monroe. Alexander H. Stephens had only 
recently been liberated on parole, as had also 
nearly a dozen rebel leaders who now, restored to 
the enjoyment of their citizenship and political 



320 JAMES G. BLAINE, 

rights, were members of the United States 
Senate. 

It was amid memories such as these, and mem- 
ories, too, of the great events that had occurred 
during the intervening sixteen years, that this 
audience gathered to do honor to the memory of 
Garfield. The programme of services was a very 
simple one. Shortly after twelve o'clock, noon, 
the Speaker called the House to order. Prayer 
was offered by the Chaplain. The Clerk read the 
resolution of the two Houses under which the 
services were to be held. Then the members of 
the Senate and other quests filed in and took their, 
places. Last came the orator of the day, escorted 
by Senator Sherman and Representative McKin- 
ley, and accompanied by William E. Chandler, 
Stephen B. Elklns, Thomas H. Sherman and 
Emmons Blaine. Mr. Blaine took his place at the 
Clerk's desk. Before him lay the manuscript of 
his oration, written in a lar^e, bold hand, upon 
heavy paper with a broad black border. Feeling, 
perhaps more deeply than any one else in all the 
great assemblage, the full and serious importance 
of the occasion, he spoke slovvly, bravely and with 
most impressive fervor. Throughout, the assem- 
bled thousands listened with silent and sympadietic 
attention. At the end of the oration, the Presi- 
dent of the United States led the audience in a 
hearty round of applause to the speaker, applause 
that, under the circumstances, had a singularly 



IN MEMORIAM. 32 [ 

solemn sound. Then the distinguished guests 
departed, and the general audience followed them. 
The Nation had paid its last formal tribute of re- 
spect to one of its most loved and honored servants. 

Mr. Blaine's oration on this occasion forms an 
essential part of his own history, as well as of the 
history of Garfield and of the history of the 
Nation, and it is accordingly herewith printed in 
full. 

THE ORATION. 

Mr. President: — For the second time in this 
generation the great departments of the govern- 
ment of the United States are assembled in the 
Hall of Representatives, to do honor to the 
memory of a murdered President. Lincoln fell 
at the close of a mighty struggle, in which the 
passions of men had been deeply stirred. The 
tragical termination of his great life added but 
another to the lengthened succession of horrors 
which had marked so many lintels with the blood 
of the first-born. Garfield was slain in a day of 
peace, when brother had been reconciled to 
brother, and when anger and hate had been ban- 
ished from the land. ''Whoever shall hereafter 
draw the portrait of murder, if he will show it as 
it has been exhibited where such example was last 
to have been looked for, let him not give it the 
grim visage of Moloch, the brow knitted by 
revenge, the face black with settled hate. Let him 
draw, rather, a decorous, smooth-faced, bloodless 



322 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



demon ; not so much an example of human 
nature in its depravity and in its paroxysms of 
crime, as an infernal being, a fiend in the ordinary 
display and development of his character." * 

From the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth 
till the uprising against Charles I., about twenty 
thousand emigrants came from Old England to 
New England. As they came in pursuit of intel- 
lectual freedom and ecclesiastical independence 
rather than for worldly honor and profit, the emi- 
gration naturally ceased when the contest for 
religious liberty began in earnest at home. The 
man who struck his most effective blow for free- 
dom of conscience by sailing for the colonies in 
1620, would have been accounted a deserter to 
leave after 1640. The opportunity had then come 
on the soil of England for that great contest 
which established the authority of Parliament, 
gave religious freedom to the people, sent Charles 
to the block, and committed to the hands of Oliver 
Cromwell the supreme executive authority of 
England. The English emigration was never 
renewed, and from these twenty thousand men, 
and from a small emigration from Scotland, from 
Ireland, and from France, are descended the vast 
numbers who have New England blood in their 
veins. 

In 1685, revocation of the Edict of Nantes 
by Louis XIV., scattered to other countries four 
hundred thousand Protestants, who were among 



IN MEMORIAM, 



the most intelligent and enterprising of French 
subjects — merchants of capital, skilled manufact- 
urers and handicraftsmen, superior at the time to 
all others in Europe. A considerable number of 
these Huguenot French came to America ; a few 
landed in New Encjland and became honorably 
prominent in its history. Their names have in 
part become anglicized, or have disappeared, but 
their blood is traceable in many of the most 
reputable families, and their fame is perpetuated 
in honorable memorials and useful institutions. 

From these two sources, the English-Puritan 
and the French- Huguenot, came the late Presi- 
dent^ — his father, Abram Garfield, being descended 
from the one, and his mother, Eliza Ballou, from 
the other. 

It was good stock on both sides — none better, 
none braver, none truer. There was in it an in- 
heritance of courage, of manliness, of imperish- 
able love of liberty, of undying adherence to 
principle. Garfield was proud of his blood ; and, 
v/ith as much satisfaction as if he were a British 
nobleman reading his stately ancestral record in 
Burke's Peerage, he spoke of himself as ninth in 
descent from those who would not endure the 
oppression of the Stuarts, the seventh in descent 
from the brave French Protestants who refused to 
submit to tyranny, even from the Grand Manarque. 

General Garfield delighted to dwell on these 
traits, and, during his only visit to England, he 



324 



JAMES C. BLAINE. 



busied himself in searching out every trace of his 
forefathers in parish registries and on ancient 
army-rolls. Sitting with a friend in the gallery of 
the House of Commons one night, after a long 
day's labor in this field of research, he said, with 
evident elation, that in every war in which for 
three centuries patriots of English blood had 
struck sturdy blows for constitutional government 
and human liberty, his family had been repre- 
sented. They were at Marston Moor, at Naseby, 
and at Preston ; they were at Bunker Hill, at 
Saratoga, and at Monmouth ; and in his own per- 
son had battled for the same great cause in the 
war which preserved the Union of the States. 

His father dying before he was two years old, 
Garfield's early life was one of privation, but its 
poverty has been made indelicately and unjustly 
prominent. Thousands of readers have imagined 
him as the ragged, starving child, whose reality 
too often greets the eye in the squalid sections of 
our large cities. General Garfield's infancy and 
youth had none of this destitution, none of these 
pitiful features appealing to the tender heart, and 
to the open hand, of charity. He was a poor 
boy in the same sense in which Henry Clay was 
a poor boy ; in which Andrew Jackson was a poor 
boy ; in which Daniel Webster was a poor boy ; 
in the sense in which a large majority of the emi- 
nent men of America in all generations have 
been poor boys. Before a great multitude in 



jN' memoir jam. 327 

a public speech, Mr. Webster bore this tes- 
timony : 

**It did not happen to me to be born in a log- 
cabin, but my elder brothers and sisters were 
born in a log-cabin raised amid the snowdrifts of 
New Hampshire, at a period so early that when 
the smoke rose first from its rude chimney and 
curled over the frozen hills there was no similar 
evidence of a white man's habitation between it 
and the settlements on the rivers of Canada. Its 
remains still exist. I make to it an annual visit. I 
carry my children to it to teach them the hard- 
ships endured by the generations which have 
gone before them. I love to dwell on the tender 
recollections, the kindred ties, the early affections, 
and the touchino- narratives and incidents, which 
mingle with all I know of this primitive fam^ily 
abode.'* 

With the requisite change of scene the same 
words would aptly portray the early days of Gar- 
field. The poverty of the frontier, where all are 
engaged in a common struggle, and where a 
common sympathy and hearty co-operation 
lighten the burdens of each, is a very different 
poverty, different in kind, different in influence 
and effect, from the conscious and humiliating 
indigence which is every day forced to contrast 
itself with neicrhborinor wealth on which it feels a 

o o 

sense of grinding dependence. The poverty of 
the frontier is indeed no poverty. It is but the 
^9 



32^ 

beginning of wealth, and has the boundless pos- 
sibilities of the future always opening before it. 
No man ever grew up in the agricultural regions 
of the West, where a house-raising, or even a 
corn-husking, is a matter of common interest and 
helpfulness, with any other feeling than that of 
broad-minded, generous independence. This hon- 
orable independence marked the youth of Gar- 
field, as it marks the youth of millions of the best 
blood and brain now trainino- for the future cit- 
izenship and future government of the Republic. 
Garfield was born heir to land, to the title of free- 
holder, which has been the patent and passport of 
self-respect with the Anglo-Saxon race ever since 
Henmst and Horsa landed on the shores of Eno- 

o o 

land. His adventure on the canal — an alterna- 
tive between that and the deck of a Lake Erie 
schooner — was a farmer boy's device for earning 
money, just as the New England lad begins a 
possibly great career by sailing before the mast 
on a coasting-vessel, or on a merchantman bound 
to the farther India, or to the China seas. No 
manly man feels anything of shame in looking 
back to early struggles with adverse circum- 
stances, and no man feels a worthier pride than 
when he has conquered the obstacles to his pro- 
gress. But no one of noble mould desires to be 
looked upon as having occupied a menial position, 
as having been repressed by a feeling of inferior- 
ity, or as having suffered the evils of poverty 



IN ME MORI AM. 3 29 

until relief was found at the hand of chanty. 
General Garfield's youth presented no hardships 
which family love and family energy did not over- 
come, subjected him to no privations which he 
did not cheerfully accept, and left no memories 
save those which Vvere recalled with delight, and 
transmitted v/ith profit and v\^ith pride. 

Garfield's early opportunities for securing an 
education were extremely limited, and yet were 
sufficient to develop in him. an intense desire to 
learn. He could read at three years of age, and 
each winter he had the advantage of the district 
school. He read all the books to be found within 
the circle of his acquaintance ; somie of them he 
got by heart. While yet in childhood he was a 
constant student of the Bible, and became familiar 
with its literature. The dignity and earnestness 
of his speech in his maturer life gave evidence of 
this early training. At eighteen years of age he 
was able to teach school, and thenceforvvard his 
ambition was to obtain a college education. To 
this end he bent all his efforts, working in* the 
harvest field, at the carpenter's bench, and in the 
winter season, teaching the common schools of 
the neighborhood. While thus laboriously occu- 
pied he found time to prosecute his studies, and 
was so successful that at twenty-tv/o years of age 
he Vx'as able to enter the junior class at Williams 
College, then under the presidency of the vener- 
able and honored Mark Hopkins, who, in the 



330 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



fulness of his powers, survives the emirkent pupil 
to whom he was of inestimable service. 

The history of Garfield's life to this period, 
presents no novel features. He had undoubtedly 
shown perseverance, self-reliance, self-sacrifice 
and ambition — qualities which, be it said for the 
honor of our country, are everywhere to be 
found among the young men of America. But 
from his graduation at Williams, onward to the 
hour of his tragical death, Garfield's career was 
eminent and exceptional. Slowly working through 
his educational period, receiving his diploma when 
twenty-four years of age, he seemed at one bound 
to spring into conspicuous and brilliant success. 
Within years he was successively president of 
a college, State Senator of Ohio, Major-General 
of the Army of the United States, and Repre- 
sentative-elect to the National Congress. A com- 
bination of honors so varied, so elevated, within 
a period so brief, and to a man so young, is with- 
out precedent or parallel in the history of the 
country. 

Garfield's army life was begun with no other 
military knowledge than such as he had hastily 
gained from books in the few months preceding 
his march to the field. Stepping from civil life to 
the head of a regiment, the first order he re- 
ceived when ready to cross the Ohio was to as- 
sume command of a brigade, and to operate as 
an independent force in Eastern Kentucky. His 



IN ME MORI AM. 33 i 

immediate duty was to check the advance of 
Humphrey Marshall, who was marching down 
the Big Sandy with the intention of occupying, in 
connection with other Confederate forces, the en- 
tire territory of Kentucky, and of precipitating 
the State into secession. This was at the close 
of the year 1861. Seldom, if ever, has a young 
college professor been thrown into a more em- 
barrassing and discouraging position. He knew 
just enough of military science, as he expressed 
it himself, to measure the extent of his ignorance, 
and wijth a handful of men he was marching, in 
rough winter w^eather, into a strange country, 
among a hostile population, to confront a largely 
superior force under the command of a distin- 
guished graduate of West Point, who had seen 
active and important service in two preceding wars. 

The result of the campaign is matter of history. 
The skill, the endurance, the extraordinary energy 
shown by Garfield, the courage he imparted to his 
men, raw and untried as himself, the measures he 
adopted to increase his force and to create in the 
enemy's mind exaggerated estimates of his num- 
bers, bore perfect fruit in the routing of Marshall, 
the capture of his camp, the dispersion of his 
force, and emancipation of an important territory 
from the control of the Rebellion. Coming at the 
close of a long series of disasters to the Union 
arms, Garfield's victory had an unusual and ex- 
traneous importance, and in the popular judgment 



332 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

elevated the young commander to the rank of a 
military hero. With less than two thousand men 
in his entire commiand, with a mobilized force of 
only eleven hundred, without cannon, he had met 
an army of five thousand and defeated them— 
driving Marshall's forces successively from two 
strongholds of their own selection fortified v^ith 
abundant artillery. Major-General Buell, com- 
manding the Departm.ent of the Ohio, an experi- 
enced and able soldier of the Regular Army, pub- 
lished an order of thanks and congratulation on 
the brilliant result of the Big Sandy campaign, 
which would have turned the head of a less cool 
and sensible mian than Garfield. Buell declared 
that his services had called into action the highest 
qualities of a soldier, and President Lincoln sup- 
plemented these vv^ords of praise by the more sub- 
stantial reward of a Brioradier-General's commis- 
sion, to bear date from the day of his decisive 
' victory over Marshall. 

The subsequent military career of Garfield fully 
sustained its brilliant beginning. With his new 
commission he was assiorned to the command of a 
brigade in the Army of the Ohio, and took part in 
the second and decisive day's fight in the great 
Battle of Shiloh. The remainder of the year 1862 
was not especially eventful to Garfield, as it was 
not to the armies with vvhich he was serving. His 
practical sense was called into exercise in com- 
pleting the task assigned him by General Buell, of 



IN MEMORIAM. 



333 



reconstructing bridges and re-establishing lines of 
railway communication for the Army. His occu- 
pation in this useful but not brilliant field was va- 
ried by service on courts-martial of importance, in 
which department of duty he won a valuable 
reputation, attracting the notice and securing the 
approval of the able and eminent Judge- Advo- 
cate-General of the Army. That of itself was 
warrant to honorable fame ; for among the great 
men who in those trying days gave themselves, 
with entire devotion, to the service of their coun- 
try, one Avho brought to that service the ripest 
learning, the most fervid eloquence, the most va- 
ried attainments, who labored with modesty and 
shunned applause, who in the day of triumph sat 
reserved and silent and grateful — as Francis Deak 
in the hour of Hungary's deliverance — was 
Joseph Holt, of Kentucky, who in his honorable 
retirement enjoys the respect and veneration of 
all who love the Union of the States. 

Early in 1863 Garfield was assigned to the 
highly important and responsible post of Chief of 
Staff to General Rbsecrans, then at the head of 
the Army of the Cumberland. Perhaps in a 
great military campaign no subordinate officer 
requires sounder judgment and quicker knowl- 
edge of men than the Chief of Staff to the com- 
manding general. An indiscreet man in such a 
position can sow more discord, breed more jeal- 
ousy and disseminate more strife than any other 



334 JAMES G, BLAINE, 

man in the entire organization. When General 
Garfield assumed his new duties he found various 
troubles already well developed, and seriously 
affecting the value and efficiency of the Army of 
the Cumberland The energy, the impartiality, 
and the tact with which Re sought to allay these 
dissensions, and to discharge the duties of his new 
and trying position, will always remain one of the 
most striking proofs of his great versatility. His 
military duties closed on the memorable field of 
Chickamauga, a field which, however disastrous 
to the Union arms, gave to him the occasion of 
winning imperishable laurels. The very rare 
distinction was accorded him of a great promo- 
tion for his bravery on the field that was lost. 
President Lincoln appointed him a Major-General 
in the Army of the United States for gallant and 
meritorious conduct in the Battle of Chickamauora. 

The Army of the Cumberland was reorganized 
under the command of General Thomas, who 
promptly offered Garfield one of its divisions. 
He was extremely desirous to accept the position, 
but was embarrassed by the fact that he had, a 
year before, been elected to Congress, and the 
time when he must take his seat was drawing 
near. He preferred to remain in the mihtary 
service, and had within his own breast the largest 
confidence of success in the wider field which his 
new rank opened to him. Balancing the argu- 
ments on the one side and the other, anxious to 



IN MEMORIAM, 



335 



determine what was for the best, desirous above 
all things to do his patriotic duty, he was decis- 
ively influenced by the advice of President Lin- 
coln and Secretary Stanton, both of whom as- 
sured him that he could, at that time, be of espe- 
cial value in the House of Representatives. He 
resigned his commission of Major-General on 
the fifth day of December, 1863, and took his 
seat in the House of Representatives on the 
seventh. He had served two years and four 
months in the Army, and had just completed his 
thirty-second year. 

The Thirty-eighth Congress is pre-eminently en- 
titled in history to the designation of the War 
Congress. It was elected while the war was 
flagrant, and every member was chosen upon the 
issues involved in the continuance of the struggle. 
The Thirty-seventh Congress had, indeed, legis- 
lated to a large extent on war m.easures, but it 
was chosen before any one believed that s-ecession 
of the States would be actually attempted. The 
magnitude of the work which fell upon its suc- 
cessor was unprecedented, both in respect to the 
vast sums of money raised for the support of the 
Army and Navy, and of the new and extraordi- 
nary powers of legislation which it was forced to 
exercise. Only twenty-four States were repre- 
sented, and one hundred and eighty-two members 
were upon its roll. Among these were many dis- 
tinguished party leaders on both sides, veterans 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 

in the public service, with estabhshed reputations 
for abihty, and with that* skill which comes only 
from parliamentary experience. In this assem- 
blage of men Garfield entered without special pre- 
pararation, and, it might almost be said, unex- 
pectedly. The question of taking command of a 
division of troops under General Thomas or tak- 
ing his seat in Congress was kept open till the 
last moment, so late, indeed, that the resignation 
of his military commission and his appearance in 
the House were almost contemporaneous. He 
wore the uniform of a Major-General of the 
United States Army on Saturday, and on Mon- 
day, in civilian's dress, he answered to the roll- 
call as a Representative in Congress from the 
State of Ohio. 

He was especially fortunate in the constituency 
which elected him. Descended almost entirely 
from New England stock, the men of the Ashta- 
bula District were intensely radical on all ques- 
tions relating to human rights. Well educated, 
thrifty, thoroughly intelligent in affairs, acutely 
discerning of character, not quick to bestow con- 
fidence, and slow to withdraw it, they were at 
once the most helpful and most exacting of sup- 
porters. Their tenacious trust in men in whom 
they have once confided is illustrated by the un- 
paralleled fact that Ellsha Whittlesey, Joshua R. 
GIddings and James A. Garfield represented the 
district for fiftyTour years. 



IN IV E MORI AM. 

There is no test of a man's ability in any de- 
partment of public life more severe than service 
in the House of Representatives ; there is no 
place where so httle deference is paid to reputa- 
tion previously acquired, or to eminence v/on out- 
side ; no place where so little consideration is 
shown for the feelino-s or the failures of beo^inners. 

o> <_> 

What a mian gains in the House he gains by sheer 
force of his own character, and if he loses and 
falls back he must expect no mercy, and will 
receive no sympathy. It is a field in which the 
survival of the strongest is the recognized rule, 
and where no pretence can deceive and no glamour 
can mislead. The real man is discovered, his 
worth is impartially v/eighed, his rank is irre- 
versibly decreed. With possibly a single excep- 
tion, Garfield was the youngest member in the 
House when he entered, and was but seven years 
from his college graduation. But he had not been 
in his seat sixty days before his ability was recog- 
nized and his place conceded. He stepped to the 
front with the confidence of one who beloncred 
there. The House was crowded with strong men 
of both parties ; nineteen of them have since been 
transferred to the Senate, and manyof them have 
served with distinction in the gubernatorial chairs 
of their respective States, and on Foreign Mis- 
sions of great consequence ; but among them all 
none grev/ so rapidly, none so firmly as Garfield. 
A-s is said by Trevelyan of his Parliamentary hero, 



33,8 JAMES G. BLAINE, 

Garfield succeeded ''because all the world in con- 
cert could not have kept him in the background, 
and because when once in the front he played his 
part with a prompt intrepidity and a commanding- 
ease that were but the outward symptoms of the 
immense reserves of energy on which it was in 
his power to draw/' Indeed, the apparently re- 
served force which Garfield possessed was one of 
his great characteristics. He never did so well 
but that it seemed he could easily have done 
better. He never expended so much strength 
but that he seemed to be holding additional power 
at call. This is one of the happiest and rarest 
distinctions of > an effective debater, and often 
counts for as much in persuading an assembly as 
the eloquent and elaborate argument. 

The great measure of Garfield's fame was 
filled by his services in the House of Representa- 
tives. His military life, illustrated by honorable 
performance, and rich in promise, was, as he him- 
self felt, prematurely terminated and necessarily 
incomplete. Speculation as to what he might 
have done in a field where the great prizes are so 
few cannot be profitable. It is sufficient to say 
that as a soldier he did his duty bravely ; he 
did it intelligently ; he \^IOX\ an enviable fam^, 
and he retired from the service without blot 
or breath against him. As a lawyer, though 
admirably equipped for the profession, he can 
scarcely be said to have entered on its practice. 



IN MEMORIAM, 



339 



The few efforts he made at the bar were 
distinguished by the same high order of talent 
which he exhibited on every field where he was 
put to the test, and if a man may be accepted as 
a competent judge of his own capacities and 
adaptations, the law was the profession to which 
Garfield should have devoted himself. But fate 
ordained otherwise, and his reputation in history 
will rest largely upon his service in the House of 
Representatives. That service was exceptionally 
long. He was nine times consecutively chosen to 
the House, an honor enjoyed by not more than 
six other Representatives of the more than five 
thousand who have been elected from the organi- 
zation of the Government to this hour. 

As a parliamentary orator, as a debater on an 
issue squarely joined, where the position had been 
chosen and the ground laid out, Garfield must 
be assigned a very high rank. More, perhaps, 
than any man with whom he was associated in 
public life, he gave careful and systematic study 
to public questions, and he came to every discus- 
sion in which he took part with elaborate and 
complete preparation. He was a steady and in- 
defatio-able worker. Those who imao^ine that 
talent or genius can supply the -place or achieve 
the results of labor will find no encourao^ement in 
Garfield's life. In preliminary work he was apt, 
rapid and skilful. He possessed, in a high degree, 
the power of readily absorbing ideas and facts, 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 

and, like Dr. Johnson, had the art of getting from 
a book all that was of value in it by a reading ap- 
parently so quick and cursory that it seemed like 
a mere glance at the table of contents. He was 
a pre-eminently fair and candid man in debate, 
took no petty advantage, stooped to no unworthy 
methods, avoided personal allusions, rarely ap- 
pealed to prejudice, did not seek to inflame pas- 
sion. He had a quicker eye for the strong point 
of his adversary than for his weak point, and on 
his own side he so marshalled his weio^htv arcru- 
ments as to make his hearers forget any possible 
lack in the complete strength of his position. He 
had a habit of stating his opponent's side with 
such amplitude and fairness, and such liberality 
of concession, that his followers often complained 
that he was giving his case away. But never in 
his prolonged participation in the proceedings of 
the House did he give his case away, or fail in 
the judgment of competent and impartial listeners 
to gain the mastery. 

These characteristics which marked Garfield as 
a great debater, did not, however, make him a 
great parliamentary leaden A parliamentary 
leader, as that term is understood wherever free 
representative government exists, is necessarily 
and very strictly the organ of his party. An 
ardent American defined the instinctive warmth 
of patriotism when he offered the toast, ''Our 
country, always right, but, right or wrong, our 



IN MEMORIAM. 



country/' The parliamentary leader who has a 
body of followers that will do and dare and die 
for the cause is one v/ho believes his party always 
right, but right or wrong is for his party. No 
more important or exacting duty devolves upon 
him than the selection of the field and the time 
for the contest. He must know not merely how 
to strike, but where to strike and w^hen to strike. 
He often skilfully avoids the strength of his 
opponents position and scatters confusion in his 
ranks by attacking an exposed point when really 
the righteousness of the cause and the strength 
of logical intrenchment are against him. He con- 
quers often both against the right and the heavy 
battalions ; as when young Charles Fox, in the 
days of his Toryism, carried the House of Com- 
mons against justice, against its immemorial 
rights, against his own convictions, if, indeed, at 
that period Fox had convictions, and, in the inter- 
est of a corrupt administration, in obedience to a 
tyrannical sovereio-n, drove Wilkes from the seat 
to which the electors of Middlesex had chosen him 
and installed Luttrell in defiance, not merely ot 
law, but of public decency. For an achievement 
of that kind, Garfield was disqualified — disqualified 
by tbie texture of his mind, by the lionesty of his 
heart, by his conscience, and by every instinct and 
aspiration of his nature. 

The three most distinguished parliamentary 
leaders hitherto developed in this country are Mr. 



342 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

Qay, Mr. Douglas and Thaddeus Stevens. Each 
was a man of consummate ability, of great ear- 
nestness, of intense personality, differing widely 
each from the others, and yet with a single trait 
in common — the power to command. In the give 
and take of discussion, in the art of controlling 
and consoHdating reluctant and refractory follow- 
ers, in the skill to overcome all forms of opposi- 
tion, and to meet with competency and courage 
the varying phases of unlooked-for assault or un- 
suspected defection, it would be difficult to rank 
with these a fourth name in all our Conoressional 
history. But of these Mr. Clay was the greatest. 
It would, perhaps, be impossible to find in the 
parliamentary annals of the world a parallel to 
Mr. Clay in 1841, when, at sixty-four years of age, 
he took the control of the Whig party from the 
President who had received their suffrages, against 
the power of Webster in the Cabinet, against the 
eloquence of Choate in the Senate, against the 
herculean efforts of Caleb Cushing and Henry 
A. Wise in the House. In unshared leadership, 
in the pride and plenitude of power, he hurled 
against John Tyler with deepest scorn the mass 
of that conquering column which had sw^ept over 
the land in 1840, and drove his Administration to 
seek shelter behind the lines of his political foes. 
Mr. Douglas achieved a victory scarcely less won- 
derful when, in 1854, against the secret desires of 
a strong Administration, against the wise counsel 



JOHN A. LOGAN. 



* 



4 



t 




IN MEMORIAM, 345 

of the older chiefs, against the conservative in- 
stincts and even the moral sense of the country, 
he forced a reluctant Congress into a repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise. Thaddeus Stevens, 
in his contests from 1865 to 1868, actually ad- 
vanced his parliamentary leadership until Con- 
gress tied the hands of the President and gov- 
erned the country by its own will, leaving only 
perfunctory duties to be discharged by the Exec- 
utive. With two hundred millions of patronage 
in his hands at the opening of the contest, aided 
by the active force of Seward in the Cabinet, and 
the moral power of Chase on the Bench, Andrew 
Johnson could not command the support of one- 
third in either House agamst the parliamentary 
uprising of which Thaddeus Stevens w^as the ani- 
mating spirit and the unquestioned leader. 

From these three great men Garfield differed 
radically, differed in the quality of his mind, in 
temperament, in the form and phase of ambition. 
He could not do what they did, but he could do 
what they could not, and in the breadth of his 
Cono^ressional work he left that which will loncrer 
exert a potential influence among men, and which, 
measured by the severe test of posthumous crit- 
icism, will secure a more enduring and more en- 
viable fame. 

Those unfamiliar with Garfield's industry, and 

ignorant of the details of his work, may, in some 

degree, measure them by the annals of Congress. 
20 



2^6 JAMES G. BLAIXE. 

No one of the generation of public men to which 
he belonged has contributed so much that will be 
valuable for future reference. His speeches are 
numerous, many of them brilliant, all of them 
well studied, carefully phrased, and exhaustive of 
the subject under consideration. Collected from 
the scattered pages of ninety royal octavo vol- 
umes of The Conoressio7ial Record, they would 
present an invaluable compendium of the politi- 
cal history of the most important era through 
which the National Government has ever passed. 
When the history of this period shall be impar- 
tially written, when war legislation, measures of 
reconstruction, protection of human rights, amend- 
ments to the Constitution, maintenance of public 
credit, steps toward specie resumption, true the- 
ories of revenue, may be reviewed, unsurrounded 
by prejudice and disconnected from partisanism, 
the speeches of Garfield will be estimated at their 
true value, a-nd will be found to comprise a vast 
magazine of fact and argument, of clear analysis 
and sound conclusion. Indeed, if no other au- 
thority were accessible, his speeches in the House 
of Representatives from December, 1863, to June, 
1880, w^ould give a well-connected history and 
complete defence of the important legislation of 
the seventeen eventful years that constitute his 
parliamentary life. Far beyond that, his speeches 
would be found to forecast many great measures, 
yet to be completed-^measures which he knew 



IN MEMORIAM, 



347 



were beyond the public opinion of the hour, but 
which he confidently believed would secure pop- 
ular approval within the period of his own life- 
time, and by the aid of his own efforts. 

Differing, as Garfield does, from the brilliant 
parliamentary leaders, it is not easy to find his 
counterpart anywhere in the record of American 
public life. He perhaps more nearly resembles 
Mr. Seward in his supreme faith in the all-con- 
quering power of a principle. He had the love 
of learning, and the patient industry of investiga- 
tion to which John Quincy Adams owes his prom- 
inence and his Presidency. He had some of thos^ 
ponderous elements of mind which distinguished 
Mr. Webster, and which, indeed, in all our public 
life have left the great Massachusetts Senator 
without an intellectual peer. 

In English Parliamentary history, as in our own, 
the leaders in the House of Commons present 
points of essential difference from Garfield. But 
some of his methods recall the best features in the 
strong, independent course of Sir Robert Peel, 
and striking resemblances are discernible in that 
most promising of modern conservatives, who died 
too early for his country and his fame, the Lord 
George Bentinck. He had all of Burke's love for 

o 

the sublime and the beautiful, with, posssibly, 
some of his superabundance ; and in his faith and 
his magnanimity, in his power of statement, in his 
subtle analysis, in his faultless logic, in hrs love of 



JAMES G. BLAIXE. 

literature, in his wealth and world of illustration, 
one is reminded of that great English statesman of 
to-day, who, confronted with obstacles that would 
daunt any but the dauntless, reviled by those 
whom he would relieve, as bitterly as by those 
whose supposed rights he is forced to invade, still 
labors Vv^ith serene courage for the amelioration 
of Ireland, and for the honor of the English 
name. 

Garfield's nomination to the Presidency, while 
not predicted or anticipated, was not a surprise to 
the country. His prominence in Congress, his 
solid qualities, his wide reputation, strengthened 
by his, then, recent election as Senator from Ohio, 
kept him in the public eye as a man occupying the 
very highest rank amiong those entitled to be 
called statesmen. It was not mere chance that 
brought him this high honor. ''\Ve must," says 
Mr. Emerson, ''reckon success a constitutional 
trait. If Eric is in robust health and has slept 
well and is at the top of his condidon, and thirty 
years old at his departure from Greenland, he will 
steer Vv^est and his ships will reach Newfoundland. 
But take Eric out and put in a stronger and bolder 
man and the ships will sail 600, 1,000, 1,500 miles 
farther and reach Labrador and New England. 
There is no chance in results." 

As a candidate, Garfield steadily grew in popu- 
lar favor. He w\as met with a storm of detraction 
at the very hour of his nomination, and it 



MEMORIAM, 

continued with increasing volume and momentum 
until the close of his victorious campaign. 

No might nor greatness in mortality 
Can censure 'scape; backwounding calumny 
The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong 
Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue ? 

Under it all he was calm and strong, and con- 
fident ; never lost his self-possession, did no un- 
wise act, spoke no hasty or ill-considered word. 
Indeed, nothinor }n his whole life is more remark- 
able or more creditable than his bearinor throuorh 

o o 

those five full months of vituperation — a prolonged 
agony of trial to a sensitive man, a constant and 
cruel draft upon the powers of m.oral endurance. 
The great mass of these unjust imputations passed 
unnoticed, and with the general debris of the 
campaign fell into oblivion. But in a fev/ instances 
the iron entered his soul and he died with the 
injury unforgotten, if not unforgiven. 

One aspect of Garfield's candidacy was unprece- 
dented. Never before, in the history of partisan 
contests in this country, had a successful Presi- 
dential candidate spoken freely on passing events 
and current issues. To attempt anything of the 
kind seemed novel, rash, and even desperate.' 
The older class of voters recalled the unfortunate 
Alabama letter, in which Mr. Clay was supposed 
to have signed his political death-warrant. They 
remembered also the hot-tempered effusion by 
which General Scott lost a large share of his 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 

popularity before his nomination, and unfort- 
unate speeches which rapidly consumed the re- 
mainder. The younger voters had seen Mr. 
Greeley in a series of vigorous and original ad- 
dresses, preparing the pathway for his own de- 
feat. Unmindful of these warnina-s, unheedino- 
the advice of friends, Garfield spoke to large 
crowds as he journeyed to and from Xew York in 
August, to a great multitude in that city, to dele- 
gations and deputations of every kind that called 
at Mentor durinor the summer and autumn. 
With innumerable critics, v/atchful and eacrer to 
catch a phrase that might be turned into odium 
or ridicule, or a sentence that miorht be distorted 
to his ovrn or his party's injury, Garfield did not 
trip or halt in any one of his seventy speeches. 
This seems all the more remarkable when it is re- 
membered that he did not Avrite what he said, and 
yet spoke with such logical consecutiveness of 
thought and such admirable precision of phrase 
as to defy the accident of misreport and the malig- 
nity of misrepresentation. 

In the beginning of his Presidential life Gar- 
jeld's experience did not yield him pleasure or 
satisfaction. The dudes that encfross so laro;e a 
portion of the President's time were distasterul to 
him, and were unfavoi-ably contrasted wiih his 
lea-islative work. 'T have been deaiincr all these 
years with ideas," he impatiently exclaimed one 
day, *'and here I am dealing only with persons. 



m MEMORIAM. 



351 



I have been heretofore treating of the fundamen- 
tal principles of government, and here I am con- 
' sidering all day whether A or B shall be appointed 
to this or that office." He was earnestly seeking 
some practical way of correcting the evils arising 
from the distribution of overgrown and unwieldy 
patronage — evils always appreciated and often 
discussed by him, but whose magnitude had been 
more deeply impressed upon his mind since his 
accession to the Presidency. Had he lived, a 
comprehensive improvement in the mode of ap- 
pointment and in the tenure of office would have 
been proposed by him, and with the aid of Con- 
gress no doubt perfected. 

But, while many of the Executive duties were 
not grateful to him, he was assiduous and con- 
scientious in their discharge. From the very out- 
set he exhibited administrative talent of a high 
order. He grasped the helm of office with the 
hand of a master. In this respect, indeed, he con- 
stantly surprised many who were most intimately 
associated with him in the Government, and espe- 
cially those who had feared that he might be lack- 
ing in the executive faculty. His disposition of 
business was orderly and rapid. His power of 
analysis and his skill in classification enabled him 
to despatch a vast mass of detail with singular 
promptness and ease. His Cabinet meetings 
were admirably conducted. His clear presenta- 
tion of official subjects, his well-considered 



352 JAMES G. BLAINE. . 

suggestion of topics on which-discussion was invited, 
his quick decision when all had been heard, com- 
bined to show a thoroughness of mental training 
as rare as his natural ability and his facile adapta- 
tion to a new and enlarged field of labor. 

With perfect comprehension of all the inheri- 
tances of the war, with a cool calculation of the ob- 
stacles in his way, impelled always by a generous 
enthusiasm, Garfield conceived that much might 
be done by his Administration toward restoring 
harmony between the different sections of the 
Union. He was anxious to go South and speak 
to the people. As early as April he had ineffect- 
ually endeavored to arrange for a trip to Nash- 
ville, whither he had been cordially invited, and he 
was again disappointed a few weeks later to find 
that he could not g-o to South Carolina to attend 
the centennial celebration of the victory of the 
Cowpens. But for the autumn he definitely 
counted on being present at three m.emxorable 
assemblies in the South — the celebration at York- 
town, the opening of the Cotton Exposition at 
Atlanta, and the meeting of the Army of the Cum- 
berland at Chattanooga. He v/as already turn- 
ing over in his mind his address for each occasion, 
and the three taken together, he said to a friend, 
gave him the exact scope and verge which he 
needed. At Yorktown he would have before him 
the association of a hundred years that bound the 
South and the North in the sacred memory of a 



IN MEMORIAM. 



3S3 



common danger ^nd a common victory. At 
Atlanta he v/ouid present the material interests 
and the industrial development which appealed to 
the thrift and independence of every household, 
and which should unite the two sections by the 
instinct of self-interest and self-defence. At 
Chattanooga he would revive memories of the 
war only to show that after all its disaster and all 
its suffering, the country was stronger and greater, 
the Union rendered indissoluble, and the future, 
through the agony and blood of one generation, 
made brighter and better for all. 

Garfield's ambition for the success of his Ad- 
ministration was high. With strong caution and 
conservatism in his nature, he was in no danger 
of attempting rash experiments or of resorting to 
the empiricism of statesmanship. But he believed 
that renewed and closer attention should be given 
to questions affecdng the material interests and 
commercial prospects of fifty millions of people. 
He believed that our continental relations, exten- 
sive and undeveloped as they are, involved 
responsibility, and could be cultivated into profit- 
able friendship or could be abandoned to harmful 
indifference or lasting enmity. He believed with 
equal confidence that an essential forerunner to a 
new era of National progress must be a feeling of 
contentment in every section of the Union, and a 
generous belief that the benefits and burdens of 
government would be common to all. Himself a 



354 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



conspicuous illustration of what ability and ambi- 
tion may do under republican institutions, he loved 
his country with a passion of patriodc devotion, 
and every waking thought was given to her 
advancement. He was an American in all his 
aspirations, and he looked to the destiny and 
influence of the United States with the philosophic 
composure of Jefferson and the demonstrative 
confidence of John Adams. 

The political events which disturbed the Presi- 
dent's serenity for many weeks before that fateful 
day in July, form an important chapter in his 
career, and, in his own judgment, involved ques- 
tions of principle and of right which are vitally 
essential to the constitutional administration of the 
Federal Government. It would be out of place 
here and now to speak the language of con- 
troversy ; but the events referred to, however they 
may continue to be source of contention with 
others, have become, so far as Garfield is con- 
cerned, as much a matter of history as his heroism 
at Chickamaup-a or his illustrious service in the 
House. Detail is not needful, and personal an- 
tagonism shall not be rekindled by any word 
uttered to-day. The motives of those opposing 
him are not to be here adversely interpreted nor 
their course harshly characterized. But of the 
dead President this is to be said, and said because 
his own speech is forever silenced and he can be 
no more heard except through the fidelity and the 



IN MEMORIAM. jjj 

love of surviving friends : From the beginning to 
the end of the controversy he so much deplored, 
the President was never for one moment actuated 
by any motive of gain to himself or of loss to 
others. Least of all men did he harbor revenge, 
rarely did he even show resentment, and malice 
was not in his nature. He was congenially em- 
ployed only in the exchange of good offices and 
the doing of kindly deeds. 

There was not an hour, from the beginning of 
the trouble till the fatal shot entered his body, 
when the Presideftt would not gladly, for the sake 
of restoring harmony, have retraced any step he 
had taken if such retracing had merely involved 
consequences personal to himself. The pride of 
consistency, or any supposed sense of humiliation 
that might result from surrendering his position, 
had not a feather s weight with him. No man w^as 
ever less subject to such influences from within 
or from without. But after most anxious de- 
liberation and the coolest survey of all the circum- 
stances, he solemnly believed that the true 
prerogatives of the Executive were involved in 
the issue which had been raised, and that he would 
be unfaithful to his supreme obligation if he failed 
to maintain, in all their vigor, the constitutional 
rights and dignities of his great office. He be- 
lieved this in all the convictions of conscience 
when in sound and vigorous health, and he believed 
it in his suffering and prostration in the last 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 

conscious thought which his wearied mind bestowed 
on the transitory struggles of hfe. 

More than this need not be said. Less than 
this could not be said. Justice to the dead, thr 
highest obhgation that devolves upon the Hving, 
demands the declaration that in all the bearings 
of the subject, actual or possible, the President 
was content in his mind, justified in his conscience, 
immovable in his conclusions. 

The religious element in Garfield's character was 
deep and earnest. In his early youth he espoused 
the faith of the Disciples, a sect of that great 
Baptist Communion, which in different eccle- 
siastical establishments is so numerous and so 
influential throughout all parts of the United 
States. But the broadening tendency of his 
mind and his active spirit of inquiry were early 
apparent and carried him beyond the dogmas of 
sect and the restraints of association. In select- 
ing a college in which to continue his education 
he rejected Bethany, though presided over by 
Alexander Campbell, the greatest preacher of his 
ciiurch. His reasons were characteristic : first, 
that Bethany leaned too heavily toward slavery ; 
and second, that being himself a Disciple and the 
son of Disciple parents, he had little acquaintance 
with the people of other beliefs and he thought it 
would make him more liberal, quoting his own 
words, both in his religious and moral views, to go 
into a new circle and be under new influences. 



IN MEMORIAM, 357 

The liberal tendency which he anticipated as 
the result of wider culture was fully realized. He 
was emancipated from mere sectarian belief, and 
with eager interest pushed his investigations in the 
direction of modern progressive thought. He 
followed with quickening step in the paths of ex- 
ploration and speculation so fearlessly trodden by 
Darwin, by Huxley, by Tyndall, and by other 
living scientists of the radical and advanced type. 
His own church, binding its disciples by no for- 
mulated creed, but accepting the Old and New 
Testaments as the word of God with unbiased 
liberty of private interpretation, favored, if it did 
not stimulate, the spirit of investigation. Its 
members profess with sincerity, and profess only 
to be of one mind and one faith with those who 
immediately followed the Master, and who were 
first called Christians at Antioch. 

But however hicrh Garfield reasoned of fixed 
f ite, free will, foreknowledge absolute," he was 
never separated from the Church of the Disciples 
in his affections and in his associations. For him 
it held the ark of the covenant. To him it was 
tlie crate of heaven. The world of relio-ious be- 
lief is full of solecisms and contradictions. A 
philosophic observer declares that men by the 
thousand will die in defence of a creed whose 
doctrines they do not comprehend, and whose 
tenetj; they habitually violate. It is equally true 
that men by the thousand will cling to church 



358 JAMES G, BLAINE. 

organizations with instinctive and wndying 
fidelity wken their belief in maturer years is radi- 
cally different from that which inspired them as 
neophytes. 

But after this range of speculation, and this 
latitude of doubt, Garfield came back always with 
freshness and delight to the simpler instincts of re- 
ligious faith, which, earliest implanted, longest 
survive. Not many weeks before his assassina- 
tion, walking on the banks of the Potomac with a 
friend,"and conversing on those topics of personal 
religion concerning which noble natures have an 
unconquerable reserve, he said that he found the 
Lord's Prayer and the simple petitions learned in 
infancy infinitely restful to him, not merely in their 
stated repetition, but in their casual and frequent 
recall as he went about the daily duties of life. 
Certain texts of Scripture had a very strong hold 
on his memory and his heart. He heard, while in 
Edinburgh some years ago, an eminent Scotch 
preacher, who prefaced his sermon with reading 
the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Ramans, 
which book had been the subject of careful study 
with Garfield durina- all his relio-ious life. He was 

o o 

greatly impressed by the elocution of the preacher 
and declared that it had imparted a new and 
deeper meaning to the majestic utterances of 
Saint Paul. He referred often in after years to 
that memorable service, and dwelt with exaltation 
of feeling upon the radiant promise and the 



IN MEMORIAM, 



359 



assured hope with which the great apostle of the 
Gentiles was ''persuaded that neither death, nor 
Hfe, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor 
things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor 
depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to 
separate us from the love of God, which is in 
Christ Jesus our Lord." 

The crowning characteristic of General Gar- 
field's religious opinions, as, indeed, of all his 
opinions, was his liberality. In all things he had 
charity. Tolerance was of his nature. He re- 
spected in others the qualities which he possessed 
himself — sincerity of conviction and frankness of 
expression. With him the inquiry was not so 
much what a man believes, but does he believe it? 
The lines of his friendship and his confidence en- 
circled men of every creed and men of no creed, 
and to the end of his life, on his ever-lengthening 
list of friends, were to be found the names of a 
pious Catholic priest and of an honest-minded and 
generous-hearted free-thinker. 

On the morning of Saturday, July 2d, the Pres- 
ident was a contented and happy man — not in an 
ordinary degree, but joyfully, almost boyishly, 
happy. On his way to the railroad station, to 
which he drove slowly, in conscious enjoyment of 
the beautiful morning, with an unwonted sense of 
leisure and a keen anticipation of pleasure, his 
talk was all in the grateful and gratulatory vein. 
He fek that after four months of trial his 



26o JAMES G. BLAIiVE. 

Administration was strong in its grasp of affairs, 
strong in popular favor, and destined to grow 
stronger ; that grave difficulties confronting him at 
his inauguration had been safely passed ; that 
trouble lay behind him, and not before him ; that he 
was soon to meet the wife whom he loved, now re- 
covering from an illness which had but lately dis- 
quieted, and at times almost unnerved, him ; that 
he was going to his Alma Mater to renew the 
most cherished associations of his young man- 
kood, and to exchange greetings with those whose 
deepening interest had followed every step of his 
upward progress, from the day he entered upon 
his college course until he had attained the lof- 
tiest elevation in the gift of his countrymen. 

Surely if happiness can ever come from the 
honors or triumphs of this world, on that quiet 
July morning James A. Garfield may well have 
been a happy man. No foreboding of evil 
haunted him ; no slightest premonition of danger 
clouded his sky. His terrible fate was upon him 
in an instant. One moment he stood erect, strong, 
confident in the years stretching out peacefully 
before him. The next he lay wounded, bleeding, 
helpless, doomed to weary wxeks of torture, to 
silence, and the grave. 

Great in life, he was surpassingly great in death. 
For no cause, in the very frenzy of wantonness 
and wickedness, by the red hand of murder, he 
was thrust from the full tide of this world's interest, 




GROVER CLEVELAND. 



IN MEMORIAM. ^63 

from its hopes, its aspirations, its victories, 
into the visible presence of death — and he did 
not quail. Not alone for the one short moment 
in which, stunned and dazed, he could give up 
life, hardly aware of its relinquishment, but 
through days of deadly languor, through w^eeks 
of agony that was not less agony because silently 
borne, with clear sight and calm courage, he 
looked into his open grave. What blight and 
ruin met his anguished eyes, whose lips may tell 
— what brilliant broken plans, what baffled high 
ambitions, what sundering of strong, warm 
manhood's friendships, what bitter rending of 
sweet household ties ! Behind him a proud, ex- 
pectant Nation, a great host of sustaining friends, 
a cherished and happy mother, wearing the full, 
rich honors of her early toils and tears ; the wife 
of his youth, whose whole life lay in his ; the lit- 
tle boys not yet emerged from childhood's day of 
frolic ; the fair young daughter ; the sturdy sons 
just springing into closest companionship, claim- 
ing every day and every day rewarding a father's 
love and care ; and in his heart the eager, re- 
joicing power to meet all demand. Before him, 
desolation and great darkness ! And his soul 
was not shaken. His countrymen were thrilled 
with instant, profound and universal sympathy. 
Masterful in his mortal weakness, he became the 
centre of a Nation's love, enshrined in the prayers 
of a world. But all the love and all the sympathy 



364 JAMES G. BLAINE, 

could not share with him his suffering. He trod 
the wine-press alone. With unfaltering front he 
faced death. With unfailing tenderness he took 
leave of life. Above the demoniac hiss of the 
assassin's bullet he heard the voice of God. With 
simple resignation he bowed to the Divine decree. 

As the end drew near, his early craving for the 
sea returned. The stately mansion of power had 
been to him the wearisome hospital of pain, and 
he begged to be taken from its prison walls, from 
its oppressive, stifling air, from its homelessness 
and hopelessness. Gently, silently, the love of 
a great people bore the pale sufferer to the 
longed-for healing of the sea, to live or to die, as 
God should will, within sight of its heaving bil- 
lows, within sound of its manifold voices. With 
wan, fevered face tenderly lifted to the cooling 
breeze, he looked out wistfully upon the ocean's 
changing wonders ; on its fair sails, whitening in 
the morning light ; on its restless waves, rolling 
shoreward to break and die beneath the noonday 
sun ; on the red clouds of evening, arching low 
to the horizon ; on the serene and shining path- 
way of the stars. Let us think that his dying 
eyes read a mystic meaning which only the rapt 
and parting soul may know. Let us believe that 
in the silence of the receding world he heard the 
great waves breaking on a further shore, and felt 
already upon his wasted brow the breath of the 
eternal mornine. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE CONVENTION OF 1 884. 

Mr. Blaine a Candidate for the Third Time — Meeting of the Convention — 
The First Skirmish — The Deciaration of Principles — The Various 
Candidates Placed in Nomination — Speech of Judge West in Behalf 
of Mr. Blaine — Scenes of Unparalleled Enthusiasm — Steadfast Sup- 
port for President Arthur — Mr. Blaine Nominated on the Fourth 
Ballot — Address of the Committee Informing Him of the Result — 
Mr. Blaine's Reply. 

For a third time, in i884,%Ir. Blaine's name 
was brought forward by his friends in a National 
Republican Convention as a Presidential candidate. 
His support was now stronger than ever before, 
and the opposition to him was less united than in 
1880. , President Arthur, who had been elected 
Vice-President in 1880, and had succeeded to the 
Presidency on the assassination of Garfield, was 
strongly favored by a large section of the party, 
although he had studiously refrained from putting 
himself forward in any manner as a candidate. 
The nomination of Senator Sherman was stronmv 
urged by many on account of his long and dis- 
tinguished public services. Senator Edmunds, 
Senator Logan, Senator Harrison, Senator Haw- 
ley, Judge Gresham, General Grant, and the 
Hon. Robert T. Lincoln also had their sup- 
porters. Mr. Blaine was, however, indisputably 

36s 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 

the leading candidate. He had personally made 
no effort towards securing the nomination, and 
had personally little expectation of success. But 
his friends were more numerous, more united, 
more determined, and more enthusiastic than ever 
before. His defeats in 1876 and 1880 had only 
increased their resolution to secure for him the 
coveted prize. 

The Convention met at Chicago on Tuesday, 
June 3d, in the vast Exposition Building. On one 
hand the cry was for Blaine ; on the other, anything 
to beat Blaine. The Convention w^as called to order 
by Senator Sabin, of Minnesota, and the opening 
of the battle began a few minutes later w^hen he 
proposed the Hon. Pow^ell Clayton, of Arkansas, 
for Temporary Chairman of the Convention. Mr. 
Clayton was an earnest supporter of Mr. Blaine, 
and was reo[-arded as the Blaine candidate for the 
chairmanship. Immediately, therefore, Mr. Henry 
Cabot Lodge, of Massachusetts, nominated as an 
opposition candidate, the Hon. John R. Lynch, of 
Mississippi. Mr. Lynch w^as an African gentle- 
man, v/ho had served with distinction in Congress 
and was eminently well fitted for the position. 
The supporters of President Arthur and Senator 
Edmunds voted for him and succeeded in electino- 
him as Temporary Chairman, and the supporters of 
Mr. Blaine thus received a check. The next day's 
session w^as called to order by Mr. Lynch, and 
presently ex-Senator John B. Henderson, of 



THE CONVENTION OF 1884. 367 

Missouri, was chosen Permanent Chairman of the 
Convention. The following declaration of prin- 
ciples, or Platform, was then adopted : 

''The Republicans of the United States, in 
National Convention assembled, renew their alle- 
giance to the principles upon which they have 
triumphed in six successive Presidential elections ; 
and congratulate the American people on the 
attaiument of so many results in legislation and 
administration, by which the Republican party 
has, after saving the Union, done so much to 
render its institutions just, equal and beneficent, 
the safeguard of liberty and the embodiment 
of the best thought and highest purposes of our 
citizens. 

''The Republican party has gained its strength 
by quick and faithful response to the demand of 
the people for the freedom and equality of all 
men ; for a united nation, assuring the rights of 
all citizens ; for the elevation of labor ; for an 
honest currency ; for purity in legislation, and for 
integrity and accountability in all departments of 
the government, and it accepts anew the duty of 
leading in the work of progress and reform. 

''We lament the death of President Garfield, 
whose sound statesmanship, long conspicuous in 
Congress, gave promise of a strong and success- 
ful administration ; a promise fully realized during 
the short period of his office as President of the 
United States. His distinguished services in war 



268 JAMES G. BLAINE, 

and peace have endeared him to the hearts of the 
American people. 

''In the administration of President Arthur, we 
recognize a wise, conservative and patriotic poHcy, 
under which the country has been blessed with 
remarkable prosperity ; and we believe his emi- 
nent services are entitled to and will receive the 
hearty approval of every citizen. 

''It is the first duty of a good government to 
protect the rights and promote the interests of its 
own people. 

"The largest diversity of industry is most pro- 
ductive of general prosperity, and of the comfort 
and independence of the people. 

"We, therefore, demand that the imposition of 
duties on foreign imports shall be made, not ' for 
revenue only,' but that in raising the requisite 
revenues for the government; such duties shall be 
so levied as to afford security to our diversified 
industries and protection to the rights and wages 
of the laborer ; to the end that active and intelli- 
gent labor, as well as capital, may have its just 
reward, and the laboring man his full share in the 
national prosperity. 

"Against the so-called economic system of the 
Democratic party, whichwould degrade our labor to 
the foreign standard, v\' e enter our earnest protest. 

"The Democratic party has failed completely 
to relieve the people of the burden of unnecessary 
taxation by a wise reduction of the surplus. 



THE CONVENTION OF 1884. 369 

''The Republican party pledges itself to correct 
the inequalities of the tariff, and to reduce the 
surplus, not by the vicious and indiscriminate pro- 
cess of horizontal reduction, but by such methods 
as will relieve the taxpayer without injuring- the 
labor or the great productive interests of the 
country. 

We recognize the importance of sheep hus- 
bandry in the United States, the serious depres- 
sion which it is now experiencing, and the danger 
threatening its future prosperity ; and we, there- 
fore, respect the demands of the representatives 
of this important agricultural interest for a re-ad- 
justment of duties upon foreign wool, in order 
that such industry shall have full and adequate 
protection. 

''We have always recommended the best 
money known to the civilized world ; and we urge 
that efforts should be made to unite all commercial 
nations in the establishment of an international 
standard which shall fix for all the relative value 
of gold and silver coinage. 

"The reorulation of commerce with foreign 
nations and between the States, is one of the 
most important prerogatives of the general gov- 
ernment ; and the Republican party distinctly 
announces its purpose to support such legislation 
as will fully and efficiently carry out the constitu- 
tional power of Congress over interstate com^ 
merce. 



370 JAMES O. BLAINE, 

''The principle of public regulation of railway 
corporations is a wise and salutary one for the 
protection of all classes of the people ; and we 
favor legislation that shall prevent unjust dis- 
crimination and excessive charges for transporta- 
tion, and that shall secure to the people, and the 
railways alike, the fair and equal protection of the 
laws. 

*'We favor the establishment of a national 
bureau of labor ; the enforcement of the eight- 
hour law ; a wise and judicious system of general 
education by adequate appropriation from the 
national revenues, wherever the same is needed. 
We believe that everywhere the protection to a 
citizen of American birth must be secured to 
citizens by American adoption ; and we favor the 
settlement of national differences by international 
arbitration. 

The Republican party, having its birth in a 
hatred of slave labor and a desire that all men may 
be truly free and equal, is unalterably opposed to 
placing our workingmen in competition with any 
form of servile labor, whether at home or abroad. 
In this spirit, we denounce the importation of 
contract labor, whether from Europe or Asia, as 
an offence against the spirit of American institu- 
tions ; and we pledge ourselves to sustain the 
present law restricting Chinese immigration, and 
to provide such further legislation as is necessary 
to carry out its purposes. 



THE CONVENTION OF 1884, 3/1 

'' Reform of the civil service, auspiciously begun 
under Republican administration, should be com- 
pleted by the further extension of the reform 
system already established by law, to all the 
grades of the service to which it is applicable. 
The spirit and purpose of reform should be 
observed in all executive appointments ; and all 
laws at variance with the objects of existing 
reform legislation should be repealed, to the 
end that the dangers to free institutions, which 
lurk in the power of official patronage, may be 
wisely and effectively avoided. 

''The public lands are a heritage to the people 
of the United States, and should be reserved as 
far as possible for small holdings by actual settlers. 
W e are opposed to the acquisition of large tracts 
of these lands by corporations or individuals, 
especially where such holdings are in the hands 
of non-resident aliens. And v/e will endeavor to 
obtain such legislation as will tend to correct this 
evil. We demand of Congress the speedy for- 
feiture of all land grants which have lapsed by 
reason of non-compliance with acts of incorpora- 
tion, in all cases where there has been no attempt 
in good faith to perform the conditions of such 
grants. 

"The grateful thanks of the American people 
are due to the Union soldiers and sailors of the 
late war; and the Republican party stands pledged 
to suitable pensions for all who were disabled, 



372 James g. blaine, 

and for the widows and orphans of those who 
died in the war. The Repubhcan party also 
pledges itself to the repeal of the limitation con- 
tained in the arrears act of 1879. So that all invalid 
soldiers shall share alike, and their pensions begin 
with the date of disability, or discharge, and not 
with the date of application. ^ 

''The Republican party favors a policy which 
/ shall keep us from entangling alliances with for- 
/ eign nations, and which gives us the right to ex- 
I pect that foreign nations shall refrain from med- 
I dling in American affairs ; a policy which seeks 
I peace and trade with all powers, but especially 
with those of the Western Hemisphere. 

"We demand the restoration of our navy to 
its old-time strength and efficiency, that it may, 
in any sea, protect the rights of American citizens 
and the interests of American commerce ; and 
we call upon Congress to remove the burdens 
under which American shipping has been de- 
pressed, so that it may again be true that we have 
a commerce which leaves no sea unexplored, and 
a navy which takes no law from superior force. 

''Resolved, That appointments by the Presi- 
dent to offices in the Territories should be made 
from the bona-fide citizens and residents of the 
Territories wherein they are to serve. 

"Resolved, That it is the duty of Congress to 
enact such laws as shall promptly and effectually 
suppress the system of polygamy within our 



THE CONVEXTIOX OF 18S4. 



373 



Territories; and divorce the political from the eccle- 
siastical power of the so-called Mormon church ; 
and that the laws so enacted should be rigidly 
enforced by the civil authorities, if possible, and 
by the military, if need be. 

''The people of the United States, in their 
organized capacity, constitute a Nation, and not 
a mere confederacv of States ; the National 
Government is supreme within the sphere of 
its national duties ; but the States have reserved 
rights w^hich should be faithfully maintained ; 
each should be guarded with jealous care, so 
that the harmony of our system of -govern- 
ment may be preserved and the Union kept 
inviolate. 

''The perpetuity of our institutions rests upon 
the maintenance of a free ballot, an honest count, 
and correct returns. We denounce the fraud 
and violence practised by the Democracy in 
Southern States, by which the will of the voter is 
defeated, as dangerous to the preservation of free 
institutions ; and we solemnly arraign the Demo- 
cratic party as being the guilty recipient of fruits 
of such fraud and violence. 

" We extend the Republicans of the South, re- 
gardless of their former party affiliations, our 
cordial sympathy ; and pledge to them our most 
earnest efforts to promote the passage of such 
legislation as will secure to every citizen, of 
whatever race and color, the full and complete 



374 



JAMES G. BLAIXE. 



recognition, possession and exercise of all civil 
and political rights. 

''Respectfully submitted, 

"\VM. McKINLEY, 

" CJLair77ian. 
"Wm. Walter Phelps, Secretary y 

The real contest of the Convention novv came 
on, in the choice of a candidate for the head of 
the ticket. The nominating speeches were made 
on Friday, June 5th. The roll of Stares was 
called In alphabetical order. When Connecticut 
was named the Hon. Augustus Brandegee nom- 
inated General Joseph R. Hawley. When Illinois 
was reached Senator Cullom presented the name 
of General John A. Logan. Indiana, lovra, Kan- 
sas, Kentucky and Louisiana were called without 
response. Then the Secretary called the State 
of Elaine. On the instant, says an eye-witness, 
there was a sudden explosion, and in a twinkling 
the Convention was a scene of the wildest enthu- 
siasm and excitement. Whole delegations 
sprang upon their chairs and led the cheering, 
which spread to the stage and galleries and deep- 
ened into a roar like the voice of Niagara. The 
walls of the bulldino- literallv trembled and the 
gas-lights flickered and flared as If In a hurricane. 
The flags and other decorations were torn trom 
the walls and the gallery front and waved madly 
in the air, with hats, umbrellas, handkerchiefs and 



mE CONVENTION OF 1884. 



375 



every other object within reach. Dignified and 
venerable men stood upon their chairs, stripped 
their coats from their backs and waved them in 
the air like madmen. For fifteen minutes tvv^elve 
thousand throats gave forth the chorus of pande- 
monium, and quiet was only restored when the 
multitude was literally exhausted by its efforts to 
do honor to the magic name of Blaine. 

Then Judge West, of Ohio, a blind man, but a 
most eloquent speaker, was led forward and 
spoke as follows : 

As a delegate in the Chicago Convention of 
i860, the proudest service of my life was per- 
formed by voting for the nomination of that in- 
spired emancipator, the first Republican President 
of the United States. (Applause.) Four and 
twenty years of the grandest history of recorded 
times has distinguished the ascendency of the 
Republican party. The skies have lowered and 
reverses have threatened, but our flag is still 
there, weaving above the mansion of the Presi- 
dency, not a stain on its folds, not a cloud on its 
glory. Whether it shall maintain that grand 
ascendency depends upon the action of this coun- 
cil. With bated breath, a nation awaits the result. 
On it are fixed the eyes of twenty millions of Re- 
publican freemen in the North. On it, or to it, 
rathen are stretched forth the imploring hands 
of ten millions of political bondmen of the South 
(applause), while above, from the portals of light, 



3-6 JAMES G. BLAINE, 

is looking down the immortal spirit of the immor- 
tal martyr who first bore it to victory, bidding to 
us Hail and God-speed. (Applause.) Six times 
in six campaigns has that banner triumphed — that 
symbol of union, freedom, humanity and progress 
—some time borne by that silent man of destiny, 
the Wellington of American arms (wild applause), 
last by him at whose untimely taking off a nation 
swelled the funeral cries and w^ept above great 
Garfield's grave. (Cheers and applause.) Shall 
that banner triumph again ? 

Commit it to the bearing of that chief (a voice, 
^ James G. Blaine, of Maine'- — cheers)— commit 
it to the bearing of that chief, the inspiration of 
whose illustrious character and great name will 
fire the hearts of our young men, stir the blood 
of our manhood, and rekindle the fervor of the 
veterans, and the closing of the seventh campaign 
will see that holy ensign spanning the sky like a 
bow of promise. (Cheers.) PoUtical conditions 
are changed since the accession of the Republican 
party to power. The mighty issues of freedom 
and bleeding humanity which convulsed the con- 
tinent and aroused the Republic, rallied, united 
and inspired the forces of patriotism and the forces 
of humanity in one consolidated phalanx, have 
ceased their contentions. The subordinate issues 
resulting therefrom are settled and buried away 
with the dead issues of the past. The arms of 
the Solid South are against us. Not an electoral 



THE CONVENTION OF 1S84. 



Z77 



gain can be expected from that section. If triumph 
come, the RepubUcan States of the North must 
furnish the conquering battalions from the farm, 
the anvil, and the loom; from the mines, the work- 
shop, and the desk ; from the hut of the trapper 
on the snowy Sierras ; from the hut of the fisher- 
m.an on the banks of the Hudson. The Repub- 
lican States must furnish these conquering battal- 
ions if triumph come. 

Does not sound political wisdom dictate and 
demand that a leader shall be given to them whom 
our people will follow, not as conscripts advancing 
by funereal marches to certain defeat, but a grand 
civic hero, whom the souls of the people desire, 
and v/hom they v/ill follow with all the enthusiasm 
of volunteers, as they sweep on and onward to 
certain victory? (Cheers.) A representative of 
American manhood (applause), a representative 
of that living Republicanism that demands the 
amplest industrial protection and opportunity 
whereby labor shall be enabled to earn and eat 
the bread of independent employment, relieved 
of mendicant competition vnth pauper Europe or 
pagan China? (Loud applause.) In this conten- 
tion of forces, to whose candidate shall be entrusted 
our battle-flag? Citizens, I am not here to do it, 
and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my 
mouth if I do abate one tittle from the just fame, 
integrity and public honor of Chester A. Arthur, 
our President. (Applause.) I abate not one 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 

tittle from the just fame and public integrity of 
George F. Edmunds (applause), of Joseph R. 
Hawley (applause), of John Sherman (applause), 
of that grand old black eagle of Illinois. (Here 
the speaker was interrupted several moments by 
prolonged applause.) And I am proud to know 
that these distinguished Senators whom I have 
named, have borne like testimony to the public 
life, the public character, and the public integrity 
of him whose confirmation brought him to the 
highest ofiice — second in dignity to the office of 
the President only himself — the first premiership 
in the administration of James A. Garfield. 
(Applause.) A man for whom the Senators and 
rivals will vote, the Secretary of State of the 
United States is good enough for a plain flesh 
and blood God's people to vote for President. 
(Loud applause.) 

''Who shall be our candidate? Not the rep- 
resentative of a particular interest of a particular 
class. Send the great proclamation to the country 
labelled * The Doctor s Candidate,' ' The 
Lawyers Candidate,' *The Wall Street Candi- 
date,' and the hand of resurrection would not 
fathom his November grave. (Applause.) 

Gentlemen, he must be a representative of 
that Republicanism that demands the absolute 
political, as well as personal, emancipation and 
enfranchisement of mankind— a representative of 
that Republicanism which recognizes the stamp of 




THOS. A. HENDRICKS. 



I 

1 



1 



THE CGNVENTION OF 1884. 



3S1 



American citizenship as the passport to every 
right, privilege and consideration at home or 
abroad, whether under the sky of Bismarck, under 
the Palmetto, under the Pelican, or on the banks 
of the Mohawk — that Republicanism that regards 
with dissatisfaction a despotism w^hich, under the 
' sic semper tyrannis ' of the Old Dominion, 
emulates, by slaughter, popular majorities in the 
name of Democracy — a Republicanism as em- 
bodied and stated in the platform of principles 
this day adopted by your Convention. 

Gentlemen, such a representative Republican 
is James G. Blaine, of Maine. (Applause, con- 
tinuing twenty minutes.) If nominated to-night 
his campaign would commence to-morrow and 
continue until victory is assured. (Cheers.) 
There would be no powder burned to fire into the 
backs of his leaders. It v/ould only be exploded 
to illuminate the inauguration. The brazen 
throats of the cannon in yonder square, waiting to 
herald the result of the Convention, would not 
have time to cool before his name would be 
caught up on ten thousand tongues of electric 
flame. It would sweep down from the old Pine 
Tree State. It would go over the hills and val- 
leys of New England. 

Three millions of Republicans believe that that 

man who, from the baptism of blood on the plains 

of Kansas to the fall of the immortal Garfield, in 

all that struggle of humanity and progress, 
22 



382 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

wherever humanity desired succor, wherever love 
for freedom called for protection, wherever the 
country called for a defender, wherever blov/s fell 
thickest and fastest, there in the forefront of the 
battle were seen to wave the white plumes of James 
G. Blaine, our Henry of Navarre. Nominate him, 
and the shouts of a September victory in Maine 
will be re-echoed back by the thunders of the 
October victory in Ohio. Nominate him, and the 
campfires and beacon lights will illuminate the 
continent from the Golden Gate to Cleopatra's 
needle. Nominate him, and the millions who are 
•now in waiting will rally to swell the column of 
victory that is sweeping on. 

*'If you do so, he will give you a glorious vic- 
tory in November next, and when he shall have 
taken his position as President of the great Re- 
public, you maybe sure you will have an adminis- 
tration in the interest of commerce, in the interest 
of labor, in the interest of finance, in the interest 
of peace at home and peace abroad, and in the in- 
terest of the prosperity of this great people." 
(Long applause.) 

At the end of almost every sentence in this 
speech the whole Convention burst into enthu- 
siastic applause. And at the first mention of the 
name of Blaine there was a repetition of the scene 
that had preceded the speech. For fifteen or 
twenty minutes Judge West was compelled to re- 
main silent while the Convention shouted and 



THE COX]EXTIOX OF 1S84, 3'^3 

Stamped and waved itself into a state of utter ex- 
haustion. The nomination was seconded by 
Governor Davis of Minnesota, by the Hon. Wii- 
h'am C. Goodloe of Kentucky, by the Hon. 
Thomas C. Piatt of New York, and by the Hon. 
Galusha A. Grow of Pennsylvania, amid a con- 
tinuous accompaniment of cheering and applause 
of the most enthusiastic character. 

Presently the State of New York was called 
and then there was an outburst of enthusiasm simi- 
lar to that which had greeted the State of Maine. 
Chester A. Arthur was placed in nomination 
amid great enthusiasm. Then the Hon. J. B. 
Foraker of Ohio nominated John Sherman, and 
ex-Governor Long of Massachusetts nominated 
Senator Edmunds. 

When the balloting for the nomination of a 
candidate was begun, it was found that m.any of 
the delegations were divided in their choice, and 
a poll of each delegation had to be made. As the 
result of this ballot Mr. Blaine had 334}^ vates, 
Mr. Arthur 278, Mr. Edmunds 93, Mr. Logan 
63^, Mr. Sherman 30, Mr. Hawley 13, Mr. Lin- 
coln 4, and General William T. Sherman 2. No 
candidate having a majority of all the votes cast, 
a second ballot was immediately called for and 
was taken without material change in the result. 
There was a slight gain for Mr. Blaine, however, 
which called foranother period of tumultuous cheer- 
ing. Then the third ballot was called for amid 



^g^ JAMES G. BLAINE. 

much confusion. The votes of various delega- 
tions were challeng,ed and there were many dis- 
putes on various points of order. When the re- 
sult v/as finally announced it was seen that Mr. 
Blaine had gained many votes and had now a 
total of 375. Mr. Arthur's supporters remained 
steadfast at 274. Mr. Edmunds's vote had fallen 
to 69, and there were other slight changes. But 
the result of this ballot indicated that Mr. Blaine 
was the coming mian and his opponents desper- 
ately strove to stave off the inevitable. Mr. For- 
aker, of Ohio, moved for a recess of several 
hours, but the proposition was overwhelmingly 
voted down. Then there was another long 
wrangle on points of order, followed by another 
motion from Mr. Foraker that the rules of the 
Convention be suspended and that James G. 
Blaine be nominated by acclamation. There was 
a great and disorderly wrangle over this, also, 
Vi^hich ended in the motion beinor withdrawn. 

Then the fourth ballot began. The bulk of 
Mr. Arthur's supporters remained faithful to him. 
But the Illinois delegation withdrew the name of 
General Logan, and cast 34 votes for Blaine. 
-When the State of Ohio was called, the name of 
John Sherman was also withdrawn and 46 more 
votes were added to the Blaine column. That 
settled it. The remainder of the roll call pro- 
ceeded amid great confusion and the Secretary 
began to announce the result But the words 



The convention of 1884. 2S5 

Blaine, 541 were scarcely out of his mouth be- 
fore his voice was drowned in a perfect deluge of 
applause which lasted for many minutes. The 
whole Convention rose to its feet and shouted and 
screamed and sang and stamped and waved in 
the air every movable object v/ithin reach. It 
was impossible for the Secretary to make himself 
heard. But at last partial quiet was restored and 
the result of the ballot in full was announced as 
follows : Blaine, 541 ; Arthur, 207 ; Edmunds, 
41 ; Hawley, 15 ; Logan, 7 ; and Lincoln, 2. 
Immediately, upon motion of one of Mr. Arthur's 
supporters, the nomination was made unanimous, 
and the Convention adjourned until evening. 
Then General Logan w^as nominated for Vice- 
President and the Convention adjourned. At the 
third attempt Mr. Blaine's friends had been suc- 
cessful. They had secured for him the nomina- 
tion for President by the Republican party, with 
brilliant prospects for a successful issue at the 
polls. A committee, consisting of a large num- 
ber of eminent Republicans, was appointed to in- 
form Mr. Blaine officially of his nomination. ^ 
They did so, at his home at Augusta, Maine, on 
June 2 1 St, their address being read by ex-Senator 
Henderson, as follows : 

" Mr. Blaine : — Your nomination 'for the office 
of President of the United States, by the National 
Republican Convention recently assembled in 
Chicago, is already known to you. The gentlemen 



386 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



before you, constituting a committee composed of 
one member from each State and Territory of the 
country, and one from the District of Columbia, 
now come as the accredited org-an of that Con- 
vention, to give you formal notice of the nomina- 
tion and to request your acceptance thereof. 

*Tt is, of course, known to you, that besides 
your own, several names, among the most hon- 
ored in the councils of the Republican party, 
were presented by their friends as candidates for 
this office. Between your friends and the friends 
of gentlemen so justly entitled to the respect and 
confidence of their political associates, the con- 
test was one of generous rivalry, free from any 
taint of bitterness, and equally free from the re- 
proach of injustice. At an early stage of the 
proceedings of the Convention it became mani- 
fest that the Republican ■* States, whose aid must 
be invoked at last to insure success to the ticket, 
earnestly desired your nomination. It was 
equally manifest that this desire, so earnestly ex- 
pressed by the delegates from these States, was 
but the truthful reflection of an irresistible pop- 
ular demand. It was not thought, nor pretended, 
that this demand had its origin in any ambitious 
desires of your own, or in the organized work of 
your friends, but it was recognized to be what it 
truthfiilly is — the spontaneous expression by a 
free people of their love and admiration of a 
chosen leader. 



THE CONVENTIO^r OF 1884. 387 

*'No nomination would have given satisfaction 
to all the members of the party. This was not 
to be expected in a country so extended in area 
and so varied in interests. The nomination of 
Mr. Lincoln, in i860, disappointed so many fond 
hopes and overthrew so many cherished ambi- 
tions that for a short time the disaffection threat- 
ened to ripen into open revolt. In 1872 the dis- 
content was so pronounced as to impel large 
masses of the party into organized opposition to 
its nominees. For many weeks after the nomi- 
nation of General Garfield, in 1880, defeat 
seemed almost inevitable. Fortunately, in each 
case, the shock of disappointment was followed 
by the sober second thought. Individual prefer- 
ences gradually yielded to convictions of public 
duty. The promptings of patriotism finally rose 
superior to the irritations and animosities of the 
hour. Indeed, the party in every trial has grown 
stronger in the face of threatened danger. 

*'In tendering you this nomination, it gives us 
pleasure to remember that those great measures 
which furnished causes for party congratulation 
by the late Convention at Chicago, and which are 
now crystallized into the legislation of the coun- 
try — measures which have strengthened and dig- 
nified the Nation, while they have elevated and 
advanced the people — have, at all times and on 
all proper occasions, received your earnest and 
valuable support. It was your good fortune to 



388 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



aid in protecting the Nation against the assaults 
of armed treason ; you were present and helped 
to unloose the shackles of the slave ; you assisted 
in placing the new guarantees of freedom in the 
Federal Constitution ; your voice was potent in 
preserving the National faith ; when false theories 
of finance would have blasted National and indi- 
vidual prosperity, we kindly remember you as 
the fast friend of honest money and commercial 
integrity. In all that pertains to the security and 
repose of capital, the dignity of labor, the man- 
hood, elevation and freedom of the people, the 
right of the oppressed to demand, and the duty 
of the government to afford, protection, your 
public acts have received the unqualified endorse- 
ment of popular approval. 

But we are not unmindful of the fact that 
parties, like individuals, cannot live entirely on the 
past, however splendid the record. The present 
is ever charged with its immediate cares, and the 
future presses on with its new duties and its per- 
plexing responsibilities. Parties, like individuals, 
however, that are free from the stain of violated 
faith in the past, are fairly entitled to presump- 
tions of sincerity in their promises for the future. 

Among the promises made by the party in its 
late Convention at Chicago, are : Purity and econ- 
omy of administration ; protection of the citizen, 
native and naturalized, at home and abroad ; the 
prompt restoration of our navy ; a wise reduction 



THE CONVENriON OF 1884. 



389 



of the surplus revenues, relieving the tax-payer 
without injuring the laborer ; the preservation of 
the pubHc lands for actual settlers ; import duties, 
when necessary at all, to be levied not for revenue 
only but for the double purpose of revenue and 
protection ; regulation of internal commerce by 
'the National Congress ; settlement of interna- 
tional differences by peaceful arbitration, but 
coupled with the reassertion and maintenance of 
the Monroe doctrine as interpreted by the fathers 
of the Republic ; perseverance in the good work 
of civil service reform, to the end that the dan- 
gers to free institutions vv^hich lurk in the power of 
official patronage may be v.dsely and effectively 
avoided"; honest currency based on coin of in- 
trinsic value, adding strength to the public credit, 
and giving renewed vitality to every branch of 
American industry. 

Mr. Blaine : During the last twenty-three years 
the Republican party has builded a new Republic — 
a Republic far more splendid than that originally 
designed by our forefathers. Its proportions, 
already grand, may yet be enlarged; its foundations 
may yet be strengthened, audits columns adorned 
with a beauty more resplendent still. To you, as 
its architect-in-chief, will soon be assigned this 
grateful work.*' 

To this address Mr. Blaine replied, saying : 
''M7\ Chairjnan, and Gentleme7i of the National 
Committee: — I receive, not Avithout deep sensibility, 



390 



James g. blain^. 



your official notice of the action of the National 
Convention, already brought to my knowledge 
through the public press. I appreciate, more pro- 
foundly than I can express, the honor which is 
implied in the nomination for the Presidency by 
the Republican party of the Nation, speaking 
through the authoritative voice of its duly accred- 
ited delegates. To be selected as a candidate by 
such an assemblage, from the list of eminent 
Statesmen whose names were presented, fills me 
with embarrassment. I can only express my 
gratitude for so signal an honor, and my desire 
to prove worthy of the great trust reposed in me. 

'Tn accepting the nomination, as I now do, I 
am impressed, I might almost say oppressed, with 
a sense of the labor and responsibility which 
attach to my position. The burden is lightened, 
however, by the host of earnest men w^ho support 
my candidacy, many of whom add, as does your 
honorable committee, the cheer of personal friend^ 
ship to the pledge of political fealty. A more 
formal acceptance will naturally be expected, and 
will in due season be communicated. It may, 
however, not be inappropriate at this time to say 
that I have already made a careful study of the 
principles announced by the National Convention, 
and in whole and in detail they have my heartiest 
sympathy and meet my unqualified approval. 

''Apart from your official errand, gentlem.en, I 
am extremely happy to welcome you all to my 



THE CONVENTION' OE 18B4. 



home. With many of you I have already shared 
the duties of the pubhc service, and have enjoyed 
the most cordial friendship. I trust your journey 
from all parts of the great Republic has been 
agreeable, and that during your stay in Maine you 
will feel that you are not among strangers, but 
among friends. Invoking the blessing of God 
upon the great cause which we jointly represent, 
let us turn to the future without fear, and with 
manly hearts.'' 



/ 



\ 



CHAPTER XIV. 



THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 

The Opening of Mr. Blaine's Campaign — A Statesmanlike Discussion of 
the Issues of the Day — The Revenue Laws and the Protective Tariff — 
Agricultural Interests of the Nation — Foreign and Domestic Commerce 
— Lai or and Capital — Relations with Foreign Nations — The South 
American Republics — The Civil Service — The Mormon (juestion — 
The Freedom and Purity of the Ballot. 

The platform adopted by th^ National Repub- 
lican Convention expressed the principles of the 
party. It remained for the candidate to make a 
direct and explicit personal utterance on the 
leading issues of the day, which should be, in 
great measure, the keynote of public discussion 
during the campaign. This'' Mr. Blaine did in his 
formal letter of acceptance, which is worthy of 
preservation and study as a text-book of American 
patriotism, and of the principles of American 
policy and American citizenship. It is here re- 
produced in full : 

Augusta, Me., July 15, 1884. 
The Hon. John B. Henderson and Others of the 

Committee, etc., etc. 
Gentleme7i: — In accepting the nomination for 
the Presidency tendered me by the National 
Republican Convention, I beg to express a 
392 



THE LETTER OP ACCEPTANCE. 



393 



^ deep sense of the honor which is conferreci, and 
of the duty which is imposed. I venture to ac- 
company the acceptance with some observations 
upon the questions involved in the contest — ques- 
tions whose settlement may affect the future of 
the Nation favorably or unfavorably for a long 
series of y^ars. 

in enumerating the issues upon which the 
Republican party appeals for popular support, the 
Convention has been singularly explicit and felici- 
tous. It has properly given the leading position 
to the industrial interests of the country as affected 
by the tariff on imports. On that question the 
two political parties are radically in conflict. 
Almost the first act of the Republicans, when they 
came into power in 1861, was the establishment 
of the principle of protection to American labor 
and to American capital. This principle the 
Republican party has ever since steadily main- 
tained, while on the other hand the Democratic 
party in Congress has for fifty years persistently 
warred upon it. Twice within that period our 
opponents have destroyed tariffs arranged for 
protection, and since the close of the Civil War, 
whenever they have controlled the House of 
Representatives, hostile legislation has been at- 
tempted — never more conspicuously than in their 
principal measure at the late session of Congress. 

Revenue laws are in their very nature subject 
to Trequent revision in order that they may be 



394 JAMES G. BLAINE, 

adapted to changes and modifications of trade. The 
P.epublican pariy is not contending for the per- 
manenc;/ of any particular statute. The issue 

between the tv.'o part'es cc^-rs n:t have reference 
to a soeGi^c lav;. It ' ; '/ ^ r:a:'-r c. 'A far deeper. 
I: ::^v jh,-e5 a pr:::::^,^^ v.ii-r a'; •:h:^.t!on and 
bi:::ef::rnt in.:u-::ce, aga'nst a tbi::ry which we 
believe to be unsound in conception and inevitably 



hurtful in practice. In the many tariff revisions 

v,-h':h h?v,-e been necessary for- t':^ past tw^ent}"- 

throe }"eor5, or v;h*ch n:vy her-:-:':rr become nec- 
essary, the Rovvrihao aaro" ha;^ asa'orained and 
Y.aii n:a'ata:n th r :ihy c f ■:;r::^:a:-n t: A:nerican 
industry, v;hae our • s uarurs i-'-sist upon a revis- 



ion vrhich practitaia/ sustriys that y:h:y. The 
issue is thu- o:s::naa 'vah-aoaaah and unavoid- 
able. The poa:ha^ election ntay cactormine the 
fate (A prate :aca far a gancratha. The o"^:*- 
thrcv' cf tha a chcy at-^^as a lar^'o and pera:___ :..t 
redutaua in ta- va^as cf the Ant-r::an lacorer. 
besides in'.-ci-vag- the loss of vast anaounts oi 
Anaerican carAal invested in naanuAstur'nor enter- 
yri-as. The \-alueof the present revenue system 
to the ae:aA cf the United States is a:a a matter 
01 theary. aaa I shah suActit no argunceat ta 
sustain it. I only invite attention to certain tacts 
of official record which seem to constitute a de- 
monstration. 

In the census of 1S50. an enort v;as m.ade for 
the first time in our historv to obtain a vah.aadan 



THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 3Q5 

of all the property In the United States. The 
attempt was in a large degree unsuccessful. 
Partly from lack of time, partly from prejudice 
among many who thought the inquiries foreshad- 
owed a new scheme of taxation, the returns were 
incomplete and unsatisfactory. Little more was 
done than to consolidate the local valuation used 
in the States for purposes of assessment, and 
that, as every one knows, differs widely from a 
complete exhibit of all the property. 

In the census of i860, however, the work was 
done with great thoroughness— the distinction be- 
tween ''assessed'' value and ''true" value being 
carefully observed. The grand result was that 
the "true value'' of all the property in the States 
and Territories (excluding slaves) amounted to 
fourteen thousand millions of dollars (^14,000,- 
000,000). This aggregate w^as the net result of 
the labor and the savings of all the people within 
the area of the United States, from the time the 
iirst British colonists landed fn 1607, down to the 
year i860. It represented the fruit of the toil of 
two hundred and fifty years. 

After i860, the business of the country was 
encouraged and developed by a protective tariff. 
At the end of twenty years, the total property of 
the United States, as returned by the census of 
1880, amounted to the enormous aggregate of 
forty-four thousand millions of dollars ($44,- 
000,000,000). This great result was attained, 



396 JAMES G, BLAINE, 

notwithstanding the fact that countless millions 
had, in the interval, been wasted in the progress of 
a bloody war. It thus appears, that while our pop- 
ulation between i860 and 1880 increased sixty 
per cent., the aggregate property increased two 
hundred and fourteen per cent., showing a vastly 
enhanced wealth per capita among the people. 
Thirty thousand millions of dollars (^30,000,000,- 
000) had been added during these twenty years 
to the permanent wealth of the Nation. 

These results are regarded by the older nations 
of the w^orld as phenomenal. That our country 
should surmount the peril and the cost of a 
gigantic war, and for an entire period of twenty 
years make an average gain to its w^ealth of 
$125,000,000 per month, surpasses the experience 
of all other nations, ancient or modern. Even 
the opponents of the present revenue system do 
not pretend that in the whole history of civilization 
any parallel can be found to the material progress 
of the United States since the accession of the 
Republican party to power. 

The period between i860 and to-day has not 
been one of material prosperity only. At no time 
in the history of the United States has there been 
such progress in the moral and philanthropic field. 
Religious and charitable institutions, schools, 
seminaries and colleges have been founded and 
endowed far mxore generously than at any previous 
time in our history. Greater and more varied 



THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. ^gg 

relief has been extended to human suffering, and 
the entire progress of the country in wealth has 
been accompanied and dignified by a broadening 
and elevation of our National character as a 
people. 

Our opponents find fault that our revenue sys- 
tem produces a surplus. But they should not 
forget that the law has given a specific purpose to 
which all of the surplus is profitably and honor- 
ably applied — the reduction of the public debt and 
the consequent relief of the burden of taxation. 
No dollar has been wasted, and the only extrava- 
gance with which the party stands charged, is the 
generous pensioning of soldiers, sailors, and their 
families — an extravagance which embodies the 
highest form of justice in the recognition and 
payment of a sacred debt. When reduction of 
taxation is to be made, the Republican party can 
be trusted to accomplish it in such form as will 
most effectively aid the industries of the Nation. 

A frequent accusation by our opponents is that 
the foreign commerce of the country has steadily 
decayed under the influence of the protective 
tariff. In this way they seek to array the import- 
ing interests against the Republican party. It is 
a common and yet radical error to confound the 
commerce of the country w^th its carrying trade 
— an error often committed innocently and some- 
times designedly — but an error so gross that it 
does not distinguish between the ship and the 
23 



400 



JAMES G, BLAINE. 



cargo. Foreign commerce represents the exports 
and imports of a country, regardless of the 
nationality of the vessel that may carry the com- 
modities of exchange. Our carrying trade has, 
from some obvious causes, suffered many dis- 
couragements since i860, but our foreign com- 
merce has in the same period steadily and 
prodigiously increased — increased, indeed, at a 
rate and to an amount which absolutely dwarf all 
previous developments of our trade beyond the 
sea. From i860 to the present time, the foreign 
commerce of the United States (divided with ap- 
proximate equality between exports and imports) 
reached the astounding aggregate of twenty-four 
thousand millions of dollars (^24,000,000,000). 
The balance in this vast commerce inclined in our 
favor, but it would have been much larger if our 
trade with the countries of America — relsewhere 
referred to — had been more wisely adjusted. 

It is difficult even to appreciate the magnitude 
of our export trade since i860, and we can gain 
a correct conception of it only by comparison 
with preceding results in the same field. The 
total exports from the United States from the 
Declaration of Independence in 1776 down to 
the day of Lincoln's election in i860, added to 
all that had previously been exported from the 
American colonies from their original settlement, 
amxounted to less than nine thousand millions of 
dollars (^9,000,000,000). On the other hand. 



THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 



401 



our exports from i860 to the close of the last 
fiscal year exceeded twelve thousand millions of 
dollars ($12,000,000,000) — the whole of it being 
the product of American labor. Evidently a pro- 
tective tariff has not injured our export trade, 
w^hen, under its influence, we exported in twenty- 
four years 40 per cent, miore than the total 
amount that had been exported in the entire pre- 
vious history of American commerce. All the 
details, when analyzed, correspond with this gi- 
gantic result. The commercial cities of the Union 
never had such growth as they have enjoyed 
since i860. Our chief emporium, the city of 
New York, with its dependencies, has, within that 
period, doubled her population and increased her 
w^ealth fivefold. During the same period, the im- 
ports and expons which have entered and left 
her harbor are more Liia n double, in bulk and 
value, the whole amount imported and exported 
by her between the settlement of the first Dutch 
colony on the Island of Manhattan and the out- 
break of the Civil War in i860. 

The agricultural interest is by far the largest 
in the Nation, and is entitled, in every adjustment 
of revenue laws, to the first consideration. Any 
policy hostile to the fullest development of agri- 
culture in the United States must be abandoned. 
Realizing this fact, the opponents of the present 
system of revenue have labored very earnestly 
to persuade the farmers of the United States 



402 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

that they are robbed by a protective tariff, and the 
effort is thus made to consohdate their vast influ- 
ence in favor of free trade. But, happily, ihe 
farmers of Am.erica are inteUigent, and cannot be 
misled by sophistry Vvhen conckisive facts are be- 
fore them. They see plainly that, during the 
past twenty -four years, Vv^ealth has not been ac- 
quired in one section or by one interest at the 
expense of another section or another interest. 
They see that the agricultural States have made 
even more rapid progress than the manufacturing 
States. 

The farmers see that in i860 Massachusetts 
and Illinois had about the same wealth — between 
^800,000,000 and ^900,000,000 each — and that 
in 1880 Massachusetts had advanced to |2,6oo,- 
000,000, while Illinois had advanced to ^3,200,- 
000,000. They see that New Jersey and Iowa 
were just equal in population in i860, and that 
in twenty years the wealth of New Jersey was in- 
creased by the sum of $850,000,000, while the 
wealth of Iowa was increased by the sum of ^i,- 
500,000,000. They see that the nine leading ag- 
ricultural States of the West had grown so rap- 
idly in prosperity that the aggregate addition to 
their wealth in i860 is almost as great as the 
wealth of the entire country in that year. They 
see that the South, which is almost exclusively 
agricultural, has shared in the general prosperity, 
and that, having recovered from the loss and 



THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE, 403 

devastation of war, it has gained so rapidly that 
its total wealth is at least the double of that which 
it possessed in i860, exclusive of slaves. 

In these extraordinary developments the farm- 
ers see the helpful impulse of a home market, and 
they see that the financial and revenue system., 
enacted since the Repubhcan party came into 
power, has established and constantly expanded 
the home market. They see that even in the case 
of vv^heat, which is our chief cereal export, they 
have sold, in the average of the years since the 
close of the war, three bushels at home to one 
they have sold abroad, and that in the case of 
corn, the only other cereal which we export to 
anv extent, one hundred bushels have been used 
at home to three and a half bushels exported. In 
some years the disparity has been so great that 
for every peck of corn exported one hundred 
bushels have been consumed in the home market. 
The farmers see that, in the increasing competition 
from the grain fields of Russia and from the 
distant plains of India, the growth of the home 
market becomes daily of greater concern to them, 
and that its impairm^ent would depreciate the 
value of every acre of tillable land in the Union. 

Such facts as these, touching the growth and 
consumption of cereals at home, give us some 
slight conception of the vastness of the internal 
commerce of the United States. They suggest 
also, that in addition to the advanta^-es which the 



404 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

American people enjoy from protection against 
foreign competition, they enjo) the advantages of 
absolute free trade over a larger area and with a 
greater population than any other nation. The 
internal commerce of our thirty- eight States and 
nine Territories is carried on without let or hin- 
drance, without tax, detention, or governmental 
interference of any kind whatever. It spreads 
freely over an area of three and a half million 
square miles — almost equal in extent to the whole 
continent of Europe. Its profits are enjoyed to- 
day by 56,000,000 of American freemen, and from 
this enjoyment no mionopoly is created. Accord- 
ing to Alexander Hamilton, wdien he discussed 
the same subject in 1790, ''the internal competi- 
tion which takes place does aw^ay with everx'thing 
like monopoly, and by degrees reduces the prices 
of articles to the minimum of a reasonable profit 
on the capital employed." It is impossible to 
point to a single mionopoly in the United States 
that has been created or fostered by the industrial 
system which is upheld by the Republican party. 

Compared with our foreign commerce, these 
domestic exchanges are inconceivably great in 
amount — requiring merely as one instrumientality 
as large a mileage of railway as exists to-day in 
all the other nations of the world combined. 
These internal exchanges are estimated by the 
Statistical Bureau of the Treasury Department to 
be annually twenty times as great in amount as 



THE LETTl^R OF ACCEPTAXCE, 405 

our foreign cgmmerce. It is into this vast field of 
home trade — at once the creation and the heritao^e 
of the American people — that foreign nations are 
striving by every device to enter. It is into this 
field that the opponents of our present revenue 
system would freely admit the countries of Europe 
— countries into whose internal trade we could not 
reciprocally enter, countries to which we should 
be surrendering every advantage of trade ; from 
which vve should be o-a-Inincr nothino- in return. 

A policy of this kind would be disastrous to 
the mechanics and workinomen of the United 
States. Wages are unjustly reduced when an 
industrious man is not able bv his earnincrs to 
live in comfort, educate his children, and lay by a 
suflficient amount for the necessities of ao^e. The 
reduction of wages inevitably consequent upon 
throwing our home market open to the world 
would deprive them of the power to do this. It 
would prove a great calamity to our country. It 
would produce a conflict between the poor and 
the rich, and in the sorrowful degradation of labor 
would plant the seeds of public danger. 

The Republican party has steadily aimed to 
maintain just relations between labor and capital 
g-uardine ^vith care the rio^hts of each. A conflict 
between the tvvo has always led in the past and 
will ahvays lead in the future to the injury of 
both. Labor is indispensable to the creation and 
profitable use of capital, and capital increases the 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 

efficiency and value of labor. WJioever arrays 
the one against the other is an enemy of both. 
That policy is wisest and best which harmonized 
the two on the basis of absolute justice. The 
Republican party has protected the free labor of 
America so that its compensation is larger than 
is realized in any other country. It has guarded 
our people against the unfair competition of con- 
tract labor from China, and may be called upon 
to prohibit the orowth of a similar evil from 
Europe. It is obviously unfair to permit capital- 
ists to make contracts for cheap labor in foreign 
countries to the hurt and disparagement of the 
labor of American citizens. Such a policy (like 
that YA^hich would leave the time and other condi- 
tions of home labor exclusively in the control of 
the employer) is injurious to all parties — not the 
least so to the unhappy persons who are made 
the subjects of the contract. The institutions of 
the United States rest upon the intelligence and 
virtue of all the people. Suffrage is made uni- 
versal as a just weapon of self-protection to every 
citizen. It is not the interest of the Republic that 
any economic system should be adopted which in- 
volves the reduction of wages to the hard stand- 
ard prevailing elsewhere. The Republican 
party aimis to elevate and dignify labor — not to 
degrade it. 

As a substitute for the industrial svstem which, 
under Republican administration, has developed 



THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. ^qJ 

such extraordinary prosperity, our opponents of- 
fer a policy which is but a series of experiments 
upon our system of revenue — a policy whose end 
must be harm to our m.anufactures and greater 
harm to our labor. Experiment in the industrial 
and financial system is the country's greatest 
dread, as stability 4s its greatest boon. Even the 
uncertainty resulting from the recent tariff agita- 
tion in Congress has hurtfully affected the busi- 
ness of the entire country. Who can measure 
the harm to our shops and our homes, to our 
farms and our comm.erce, if the uncertainty of 
perpetual tariff agitation is to be inflicted upon 
the country? We are in the midst of an abun- 
dant harvest ; we are on the eve of a revival of 
igeneral prosperity. Nothing stands in our vray 
but the dread of a change in the industrial sys- 
tem w^hich has wrought such v/onders in the last 
twenty years, and which, Vv^ith the power of in- 
creased capital, will vrork still greater marvels of 
prosperity in the twenty years to come. 

Our foreio-n relations favor our domestic de- 
velopment. We are at peace with the w^orld — at 
peace upon a sound basis, wdth no unsettled ques- 
tions of sufficient magnitude to embarrass or dis- 
tract us. Happily removed by our geographical 
position from participation or interest in those 
questions of dynasty or boundary w^hich so fre- 
quently disturb the peace of Europe, v^e are left 
to cultivate friendly relations with all, and are 



4oS ■ JAMES G. BLAINE, 

free from possible entanglements in the quarrels 
of any. The United States has no cause and no 
desire to engage in conflict with any Power on 
earth, and we may rest in assured confidence that 
no Power desires to attack the United States. 

With the nations of the Western Hemisphere we 
should cultivate closer relations, and for our com- 
mon prosperity and advancement we should invite 
them all to join with us in an agreement, that, for 
the future, all international troubles in North or 
South America shall be adjusted by im^partial arbi- 
tration, and not by arms. This project was part 
of the fixed policy of President Garfield's adminis- 
tration, and it should, in my judgment, be re- 
newed. Its accomplishment on this continent 
would favorably affect the nations beyond the sea, 
and thus powerfully contribute at no distant day 
to the universal acceptance of the philanthropic 
and Christian principle of arbitration. The effect 
even of suggesting it for the Spanish-American 
States has been most happy, and has increased 
the confidence of those people in our friendly dis- 
position. It fell to my lot as Secretary of State, 
in June, 1881, to quiet apprehension in the Re- 
public of Mexico by giving the assurance, in an 
official despatch, that there is not the faintest 
desire in tlie United States for territorial exten- 
sion south of t!ie Rio Grande. The boundaries of 
the two Republics have been established in con- 
formity with the best jurisdictional interests of 



THE LETTER CP ACCEPTANCE, ■ ^Qg 

both. The hne of demarcation Is not merely con- 
ventional. It is more. It separates a Spanish- 
American people from a Saxon-American people. 
It divides one great nation from another vAth dis- 
tinct and natural finality." 

We seek the conquests of peace. We desire 
to extend our commxerce, and in an especial de- 
orree with our friends and neio-hbors on this con- 

o o 

tinent. We have notim.proved our relations with 
Spanish-America as wisely and persistently as we 
miciht have done. For m^ore than a o-eneration 
the sympathy of those countries has been allovv'ed 
to drift away from us. We should now make 
every efibrt to gain their friendship. Our trade 
with them is already large. During the last year 
our exchanges in the Western Hemisphere 
amounted to £350,000,000 — nearly one-fourth of 
our entire foreign commerce. To those who may 
be disposed to underrate the value of our trade 
with the countries of North and South Am.erica, it 
may be well to state that their population is 
nearly or quite 50,000,000, and that, in propor- 
tion to aggregate numbers, we import nearly 
double as much from them as we do from Europe. 
But the result of the whole American trade is in a 
high degree unsatisfactory. The imports during 
the past year exceeded $225,000,000, while the ex- 
ports were less than $125,000,000 — showing a 
balance against us of more than $100,000,000. 
But the money does not go to Spanish America. 



4IO JAMES G. BLAINE, 

We send large sums to Europe in coin or its 
equivalent to pay European manufacturers for the 
goods which they send to vSpanish America. We 
are but paymiasters for this enormous amount 
annually to European factors — an amount which 
is a serious draft, in every financial depression, 
upon our resources of specie. 

Can not this condition of trade in great part be 
changed ? Can not the market for our products 
be greatly enlarged ? We have made a begin- 
ning in our effort to improve our trade relations 
with Mexico, and we should not be content until 
simil.ir and mutually advantageous arrangements 
have been successively made with every nation of 
Nortb and South America. While the great 
Poweis of Europe are steadily enlarging their 
colonial domination in Asia and Africa, it is the 
especial province of this country to im.prove and 
expand Its trade with the nations of America. No 
field promises so much. No field has been culti- 
vated so little. Our foreign policy should be an 
American policy in its broadest and m.ost compre- 
hensive sense— a policy of peace, of friendship, of 

com.mercial enlarcrement. 

<_> 

The name of American, which belongs to us 
in our National capacity, must always exalt the 
just pride of patriotism. Citizenship of the Re- 
public must be the panoply and safeguard of him 
who wears it. The American citizen, rich or poor, 
native or naturalized, white or colored, must 



THE LETTER GE ACCEPTANCE. 4-11 

everywhere walk secure in his personal and civil 
rights. The Republic should never accept a lesser 
duty, it can never assume a nobler one, than the 
protection of the humblest man v/ho owes it loy- 
alty—protection at hom.e, and protection which 
shall follow him abroad into whatever land he 
may go upon a lawful errand. 

I recognize, not without regret, the necessity 
for speaking of two sections of our common 
country. But the regret diminishes when I see 
that the elements wdiich separated them are fast 
disappearing. Prejudices have yielded and are 
yielding, v;hile a growing cordiality warmiS the 
Southern and the Northern heart alike. Can any 
one doubt that betw^een the sections confidence 
and esteem are to-day miore marked than at any 
period in the sixty years preceding the election of 
President Lincoln ? This is the result in part of 
timic, and in part of Republican principles applied 
under the favorable condition of uniformnty. It 
would be a great calamity to change these influ- 
ences under vrhich Southern CommionAvealths are 
learning to vindicate civil rights, and adapting 
themselves to the conditions of political tranquil- 
lity and industrial progress. If there be oc- 
casional and violent outbreaks in the South 
against this peaceful progress, the public opin- 
ion of the country regards them as excep- 
tional, and hopefully trusts that each v/ill prove 
the last. 



412 JAMES G. BLAIXE, 

The South needs capital and occupation, not 
controversy. As much as any part of the North, 
the South needs the full protection of the revenue 
laws which the Republican party offers. Some of 
the Southern States have already entered upon a 
career of industrial development and prosperity. 
These, at least, should not lend their electoral 
votes to destroy their own future. 

Any effort to unite the Southern States upon 
issues that otov/ out of the memories of the war, 
vrill summon the Northern States to combine in 
the assertion of that "Nationality which was their 
insoiration in the civil struo-o-le. And thus ereat 
enerories w^iich should be united in a common in- 
dustrial development will be wasted in hurtful 
strife. The Democratic party shows itself a foe 
to Southern prosperity by always invoking and 
urging Southern political consolidation. Such a 
policy quenches the rising instinct of patriotism 
in the heart of the Southern youth ; it revives 
and stimulates prejudice ; it substitutes the spirit 
of barbaric vengeance for the love of peace, 
progress and harmony. 

The general character of the Civil Service of 
the United States, under all adm.inistrations, has 
been honorable. In the one supreme test — the 
collection and disbursemient of revenue — the rec- 
ord of fidelity has never been surpassed in any 
Nation. With the almost fabulous sums which w^ere 
received and paid during the late war, scr::pulous 



THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 



integrity was the prevailing rule. Indeed, through- 
out that trying period it can be said, to the honor 
of the American name, that unfaithfulness and 
dishonesty among civil officers were as rare as 
misconduct and cowardice on the field of batde. 

The growth of the country has continually and 
necessarily enlarged the Civil Service, until now 
it includes a vast body of officers. Rules and 
methods of appointment which prevailed when 
the number was smaller, have been found insuf- 
ficient and impracticable, and earnest efforts have 
been made to separate the great mass of minis- 
terial officers from partisan influence and personal 
control. Im.partiality in the mode of appointment 
to be based on qualification, and security of ten- 
ure to be based on faithful discharge of duty, are 
the two ends to be accomplished. The public 
business Vvdll be aided by separating the legisla- 
tive branch of the government from all control of 
appointments, and the Executive Department 
will be relieved by subjecting appointments to 
fixed rules, and thus rem.oving them from the 
caprice of favoritism. But there should be right 
observance of the law which gives, in all cases of 
equal competency, the preference to the soldiers 
who risked their lives in defence of the Union. 

I entered Congress in 1863, and in a somewhat 
prolonged service I never found it expedient to 
request or recommend the removal of a civil 
officer, except in four instances, and then for 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 

non-political reasons whicii were instantly conclu- 
sive with the appointing power. The officers in the 
district, appointed by Mr. Lincoln in 1861 upon 
the recommendation of my predecessor, served, 
as a' rule, until death or resignation. I adopted 
at the beginning of my service the test of com- 
petitive examination for appointments to West 
Point, and maintained it so long as I had the right 
by law to nominate a cadet. In the case of many 
officers I found that the present law, which arbi- 
trarily limits the term of the commission, offered 
a constant temptation to changes for miere political 
reasons. I have publicly expressed the belief that 
the essential modifixation of that law would be in 
many respects advantageous. 

My oKservation in the Department of State 
confirmed the conclusion of m^y legislative experi- 
ence, and impressed me with the conviction that 
the rule of impartial appointmient might with 
advantage be carried beyond any existing pro 
vision of the civil service law. It should be 
applied to appointments in the consular service. 
Consuls should be commercial sentinels — encir- 
cling the globe with watchfulness for their country's 
interests. Their intelligence and competency 
become, therefore, matters of great public con- 
cern. No man should be appointed to an Ameri- 
can consulate who is not well instructed in the 
history and resources of his own country, and 
in the requirements and language of commerce 



REV. SAMUEL D. BURCHARD. 



THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 



in the country to which he is sent. The same 
rule should be applied even more rigidly to 
secretaries of legation in our diplomatic service. 
The people have the right to the most efficient 
agents in the discharge of public business, and 
the appointing power should regard this as the 
prior and ulterior consideration. 

Religious liberty is the right of every citizen of 
the Republic. Congress is forbidden by the Con- 
stitution to make any law ''respecting the estab- 
lishment of religion or prohibiting the free 
exercise thereof" For a century, under this 
guarantee, Protestant and Catholic, Jew and 
Gentile, have worshiped God according to the 
dictates of conscience. But religious liberty must 
not be perverted to the justification of offences 
against the law. A religious sect, strongly en- 
trenched in one of the Territories of the Union, 
and spreading rapidly into four other Territories, 
claims the right to destroy the great safeguard 
and muniment of social order, and to practise as 
a religious privilege that which is a crime punished 
with severe penalty in every State of the Union. 
The sacredness and unity of the family must be 
preserved as the foundation of all civil govern- 
micnt, as the source of orderly administration, as 
the surest guarantee of moral purity. 

The claim of the Mormons that they are divinely 
authorized to practise polygamy should no more 
be admitted than the claim of certain heathen 
24 



^jg JAMES. G. BLAINE, 

tribes, if they should come among us, to continue 
the rip'ht of human sacrifice. The law does not 
interfere with what a man believes ; it takes cog- 
nizance only of what he does. As citizens, the 
IMormons are entitled to the same civil rights as 
others, and %o these they must be confined. 
Polygamy can never receive National sanction or 
toleration by admitting the community that up- 
holds it as a State in the Union. Like others, 
the Mormons must learn that the liberty of the 
individual ceases where the rights of society begin. 

The people of the United States, though often 
urged and tempted, have never seriously con- 
templated the recognition of any other money than 
gold and silver — and currency directly convertible 
into them. They have not done so, they will not 
do so, under any necessity less pressing than that 
of desperate war. The one special requisite for 
the completion of our monetary system is the 
fixing of the relative values of silver and gold. 
The large use of silver as the money of account 
among x\siatic nations, taken in connection with 
the increasing commerce of the world, gives the 
weightiest reasons for an international agreement 
in the premises. Our Government should not 
cease to urge this measure until a common stand- 
ard of value shall be reached and established — a 
standard that shall enable the United States to 
use the silver from its mines as an auxiliary to gold 
in settling the balances of commercial exchange. 



THE LE TTER OF A CCEP TANCE, ^ j g 

The strength of the RepubHc is increased by 
the multipHcation of land-holders. Our laws 
should look to the judicious encouragement of 
actual settlers on the public domain, vrhich should 
henceforth be held as a sacred trust for the bene- 
fit of those seeking homes. The tendency to 
consolidate large tracts of land in the ownership 
of individuals or corporations should, with proper 
regard to vested rights, be discouraged. One 
hundred thousand acres of land in the hands of one 
man is far less profitable to the Nation in every 
way than when its owmership is divided among 
one thousand men. The evil of permitting large 
tracts of the National domain to be consolidated 
and controlled by the few against the many, is en- 
hanced when the persons controlling it are aliens. 
It is but fair that the public land should be dis- 
posed of only to actual settlers, and to those v/ho 
are citizens of the Republic, or willing to become 
so. Among our National interests, one languishes 
— the foreign carrying trade. It was very seri- 
ously crippled in our Civil War, and another blov/ 
was given to it in the general substitution of 
steam for sail in ocean traffic. With a frontage 
on the two great oceans, with a freiMitaee larger 
than that of any other nation, we have every in- 
ducement to restore our navigation. Yet the 
Government has hitherto refused its help. A small 
share of the encouragement given bv the Govern- 
ment to railways and to manufactures, and a small 



^20 JAMES G. BLAINE, 

share of the capital and the zeal given by our citi- 
zens to those enterprises, would have carried our 
ships to every sea and to every port. A lav/ just 
enacted removes some of the burdens upon our 
navigation, and inspires hope that this great interest 
may at last receive its due share of a.ttention. All ef- 
forts in this direction shouldreceiveencourap-ement. 

This survey of our condition as a Nation re- 
minds us that material prosperity is but a mockery 
if it does not tend to preserve the liberty of the 
people. A free ballot is the safeguard of Re- 
publican institutions, without which no national 
welfare is assured. A popular election, honestly 
conducted, embodies the very majesty of true 
government. Ten millions of voters desire to 
take part in the pending contest. The safety of 
the Republic rests upon the integrity of the ballot, 
upon the security of suffrage to the citizens. To 
deposit a fraudulent vote is no worse a crime 
against constitutional liberty than to obstruct the 
deposit of an honest vote. He who corrupts suf- 
frage strikes at the very root of free government. 
He is the arch-enemy of the Republic. He for- 
gets that in trampling upon the rights of others he 
fatally imperils his own rights. It is a good 
land which the Lord our God doth give us," but 
we can maintain our heritage only by guarding 
with vigilance the source of popular power. I 
am, with great respect, your obedient servant, 

James G. Blaine. 



CHAPTER XV. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1 884. 

A Bitter and Exciting Political Contest — The Standard- Bearers of the Two 
Parties — Personal Attacks upon Mr. Blaine — The Mug wump Defection 
— The State Election in Maine — Mr Blaine's Tour through the Coun- 
try — His Visit to New York — The Delmonico Dinner— The Visit of 
the Clergymen — " Rum, Romanism and Rebellion " — Some Reckless 
Lying — Effect of the Mischief — Result of the Election — Mr. Blaine's 
Comments — The Cleveland Administration. 

'' It was a battle of the first rank won by a Cap- 
tain of the Second.'' These v/ords, written by 
Victor Hugo concerning the battle of Waterloo, 
might with entire justice be applied to the Presi- 
dential campaign of 1884. It was apolitical con- 
test of the greatest importance and of the in- 
tensest interest. On one side, the leader was 
confessedly the most conspicuous and most able 
American statesman of the time. On the other, 
the leader was a comparatively unknown and 
inconspicuous man, who, however estimable, was 
not, even by his most ardent partisans, compared 
with his opponent in experience of public afiairs 
or in the general qualities of leadership and 
statesmanship. And the contest by the narrow- 
est of margins, and by virtue of a malice-inspired 
accident at the eleventh hour, v;as won by the 
latter. 

421 



422 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



James G. Blaine was the candidate of the Re- 
publican party, the party which had elected every 
President of the United States for nearly a quarter 
of a century. With him was associated, as candidate 
for the Vice-Presidency, General John A. Logan, 
who had been one of the most conspicuous com- 
manders in the National army during the War of 
the RebelHon, and who since had served with dis- 
tinction in both Houses of Congress and had shown 
himself a statesman of no mean rank. The Demo- 
cratic candidate was Stephen Grover Cleveland. 
He had been during the war a Democrat of pro- 
slavery proclivities. He had begun his public ca- 
reer in the city of Buffalo, N. Y., as Sheriff and pub- 
lic hangman ; had been elected Mayor of that city 
as a ''reform " candidate at a time of political up- 
heaval and transition ; acidfin^^ily had been elected 
Governor of New York State by the phenomenal 
majority of nearly 200,000-— a majority which he 
owed to the fact that about that number of Re- 
publicans had at that election refi^ained from vot- 
ing for their own party candidate because of their 
dissatisfaction with the influences which had se- 
cured his nomination. As Mayor and Governor, 
Mr. Cleveland had acquired a reputation for a 
considerable degree ^f executive ability and also 
for certain ''reform '' qualities, by virtue of which 
it w^as supposed that he would, if elected Presi- 
dent, introduce what were vaguely termed "busi- 
ness nic-thod:- *' into the administration of his 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 



office. He was also known to be in favor of 
P>ee Trade, or a tariff for revenue only," as 
against the Republican principle of Protection. 
His associate, the candidate for the Vice-Presi- 
dency, was Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, a 
statesman of much higher rank, greater abilities 
and more extended experience. 

The campaign between the two parties, thus 
led, was one of the most bitterly contested in the 
whole history of American politics. On the R.e- 
publican side it was fought chiefly on the issue of 
the tariff. The advantages of Protection in build- 
ing up American industries and assuring to 
American workmen higher wages than were paid 
in other lands, were unceasingly urged. The Dem- 
ocrats spoke in favor of Free Trade, but did not 
venture very strongly to press that point. They 
devoted their attention chiefly to personal attacks 
upon Mr. Blaine, many of them of an indescrib- 
ably scurrilous character. The " Mulligan letters 
w^ere again dragged forth and exploited in every 
possible manner. One of Mr. Blaine's most ear- 
nest and able champions, Mr. William Walter 
Phelps, of New Jersey, made a conclusive reply 
to this attack, amply disposing of all the renewed 
charges against Mr. Blaine. But this did not 
silence the latter s enemies. They kept harping 
upon the same worn strings all through the cam- 
paign. The absurd Shipherd business was also 
pitchforked into fresh notoriety. More than all 



424 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



this, the sanctity of Mr. Blaine's private life was 
invaded and the most shocking libels were uttered 
against his domestic relations. 

Nor were Mr. Blaine's opponents confined to 
the Democratic party. A considerable number 
of Republicans, inspired by jealousy or envy, re- 
fused to support him. Another section of that 
party, favoring Free Trade, openly repudiated him 
and went over in a body to the support of Mr. 
Cleveland. They were at first called Indepen- 
dents, but afterwards received the permanent ap- 
pellation of Mugwumps. The real source of 
their opposition to Mr. Blaine, as stated by their 
most conspicuous leader, was his well-known 
championship of the protective tarlfT system. They 
pretended, however, to be opposed to him on the 
ground of his alleged official corruption in con- 
nection with the Mulligan letters " business, and 
also because of his intense partisanship and so- 
called machine politics. The newspaper organs 
of the Mugwumps were the most persistent and 
bitter of all the critics of Mr. Blaine. 

On the other hand, the mass of the Republican 
party rallied with almost unprecedented enthu- 
siasm to the support of their brilliant and accom- 
plished leader. The more bitter were the attacks 
on him, the m.ore ardent and energetic were his 
friends in repelling them. Nor were his sup- 
porters confined to those hitherto known as Re- 
publicans. His advocacy of the rights of American 



THE CAMPAIGN OF i884' 425 

labor made him the champ.a\v\c/\^o hnr.kjj^g^i.ic^i 
everywhere and drew to his suflj ^;t thousands 
who had hitherto been identified witii the Demo- 
cratic party. His vigorous assertion of the rights 
of American citizens in all parts of the world 
during his brief term as Secretary of State, and 
his well-known sympathy with the struggle for 
Home Rule in Ireland, won for him the votes of 
thousands of Americans of Irish origin. So it ap- 
peared to be for him a winning battle, and down 
to the very day of the election his friends were 
confident of his success. 

During the early part of the campaign Mr. Blaine 
remained quietly at his home in Maine, leaving 
the active conduct of the struggle to his friends. 
During the State campaign in Maine, however, 
which culminated in the election of a Governor 
on Septemer 8th, two months before the Presiden- 
tial election, he attended a number of political 
meetings and made addresses. Although his re- 
marks were not of a pardsan political character, 
they greatly encouraged the Republicans and 
aided them in their campaign, and the splendid 
majority of nearly 20,000 by which the Republican 
candidate for Governor was elected vras i-ightly 
considered to be due, in great part, to Mr. Blaine's 
influence. Late in the evening of the day of the 
State election a great multitude assembled before 
Mr. Blaine's house at Augusta, to pay him their 
tribute of respect and congratulations, and he 



426 



JAMES G, BIAINE. 



rnaae-:' 0?^l,^^<^^^-/f^ss to them. He referred in 
moderate but emphatic terms to the issues of the 
National campaign, and explained why he had 
not more actively participated in the State cam- 
paign. ''I do not disguise from you/' he said, 
''that I am profoundly gratified with the result. 
Desirous of the good opinion of all men, I am 
sure I esteem beyond all others the good opinion 
of these excellent people, among whom I have 
passed nearly all the years of my adult life, and 
who have known me intimately from young man- 
hood as a fellow-citizen, neighbor and friend." 

Republican leaders throughout the country now 
began to argue, most reasonably, that if Mr. 
Blaine's mere presence in Maine had effected 
such good results, his participation in the party 
canvass in other States would materially aid the 
prosecution of the campaign. Mr. Blaine was re- 
lucant to make what is called a personal canvass, 
but he finally yielded to the earnest solicitations 
of his friends, and on September 1 7th left Augusta 
for New York. His progress through the States 
of Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts 
was marked everywhere by extraordinary en- 
thusiasm. At Boston that night he made a very 
brief address to about 20,000 people who had 
gathered in the street before his hotel. The next 
day he proceeded by train to New York, stopping 
at Worcester, Palmer, Springfield and Hartford for 
a few minutes each to exchange greetings with the 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 427 

multitudes who had assembled to do him honor. He 
was welcomed to New York by an almost unprece- 
dented demonstration of popular enthusiasm. 
Among the many eminent people who called upon 
him at his hotel the next day was General Grant, 
who had a long and pleasant conversation with 
him and expressed confidence in his election. In 
the evening he had an informal reception at the 
headquarters of the Republican National Com- 
mittee, and appeared for a few minutes on the 
platform in front of the building to receive the 
greetings of 50,000 or 60,000 citizens who 
crowded the street. He rem.ained in New York 
until the evening of September 2 2d, when he 
set out for Philadelphia. All the way across Nev/ 
Jersey the train was saluted by enthusiastic thou- 
sands, and in Philadelphia an enormous multi- 
tude welcomed him. 

Mr. Blaine set out for Ohio, where his presence 
was especially desired, on September 24th, going 
by the way of the New York Central and Hudson 
River Railroa-d. At every station where the train 
stopped great crowds were assembled and Mr. 
Blaine spoke a few words of personal greeting. 
This was done at Peekskill, Cold Spring, Fishkiil, 
Poughkeepsie, Hudson, Albany, Schenectady, 
Fonda, Fort Plain, Little Falls, Herkimer, Cana- 
stota, Utica, Rome, and Syracuse. At the last- 
named place he remained over night, and the next 
morning resumed his journey. Brief stops were 



428 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



made at Auburn, Seneca Falls, Geneva, Phelps, 
Canandaigua, Batavia, and Rochester. At Buffalo 
he remained over night, and was v/elcomed by an 
outpouring of fully 70,000 people in that city, the 
home of his rival. The next day he completed 
his journey to Ohio, stopping at Dunkirk, West- 
field and Erie. Brief stops were made at various 
points in Ohio before reaching Cleveland, v/here 
a tremendous demonstration was made by at least 
100,000 people. In this State, he visited Toledo, 
Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus, and various other 
places, making brief addresses and greatly in- 
spiring and encouraging his party friends every- 
where. 

Early in October he visited West Virginia and 
made addresses at various points. Then he 
returned to Ohio and made a second tour of the 
State. October 14th found him in Michigan. He 
visited a number of cities in that State, and then 
proceeded to Indiana. Some of his strongest 
speeches of the whole campaign w^ere made in 
this State, and at Indianapolis, the home of the 
Democratic candidate for the Vice-Presidency, he 
vvas greeted by one of the greatest public gather- 
ings ever seen in that city. On October 26th, he 
visited Milwaukee and made a stirring speech. 
Here an address was presented to him by a large 
club of Irish Americans. Returning to Chicago, 
he reviewed an organized procession of 30,000 
men who paraded past his hotel, and received 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1S84. 429 

many tributes of esteem and pledges of support 
from the people of that city. 

His return to New York was made by the way 
of the Erie Railroad, and at the various stopping 
places through New "York State and New Jersey 
similar demonstrations were made to those which 
had marked his progress westward the month be- 
fore. On his arrival in New York City, the entire 
metropolis seemxed to come out to v/elcome him, 
and every street echoed vvath the sound of marching 
feet, and the familiar battle cr)^ Blaine ! Blaine ! 
James G. Blaine ! Soon after his arrival he was 
called upon to review a parade of 25,000 business 
men of the city, including many of the leaders in 
all branches of trade and industry. 

While in the West, Mr. Blaine had received a 
letter from the Hon. William M. Evarts and about 
two hundred other em.inent citizens of New York, 
inviting him to dine as their guest at Delmonico's 
well-known hotel on some evening in the last 
week of the campaign. He had replied to it, 
from Evansville, indicating Wednesday evening, 
October 29th, as the date m.ost acceptable to him. 
The company that gathered on that occasion was 
one of the m.ost distinguished ever seen in New 
York. Mr. Evarts presided, Mr. Blaine sitting at 
his right hand, and the Hon. L. P. Morton, United 
States Minister to France, at his left. Other 
guests at that table were Noah Davis, Presiding 
Justice of the Supreme Court of New York ; 



430 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

ex-Governor Cornell, of New York ; Governor 
Hoyt, of Pennsylvania ; Cyrus W. Field, the con- 
structor of the Atlantic Cable ; and Charles E. 
Coon, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. At 
the other tables were many of the most eminent 
and respected men of New York City, represent- 
ing all the learned professions and all branches of 
trade and industrv. Various addresses were 
made, but the chief interest of the evening 
centred upon that of Mr. Blaine himself, which 
was as follows : 

'Tt is a great reversal of positions, Mr. Presi- 
dent (addressing Mr. Evarts), that makes me 
hear you ascribe leadership to me. (Applause.) 
For it has been my duty and my pleasure in these 
long years to follow you (applause and cheers) ; 
to learn from you Vv^isdom in public affairs, and 
join Vv'ith my countrymen in ascribing to you not 
merely the great mxerit of leadership in the noblest 
of professions, but to yield our admiration for the 
singular success which has given to you the op- 
portunity to lead in the three most important 
cases ever pleaded by a member of the American 
bar. (Applause.) First, in resisting your own 
• party in what you deemed the impolicy, if not the 
madness of impeaching a President (cries of 
''Good! Good!" and cheers) ; second, in main- 
taining before the greatest international tribunal 
that has ever assembled in modern times the 
rights of your country and obtaining redress for 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1S84. 



wrongs to her that grew out of the Civil War 
(applause) ; and third, in perhaps averting an- 
other civil war by pleading before an Electoral 
Commission a peaceful settlement of the angriest 
political discussion that ever arose between the 
parties in the United States. (Applause and 
cheers ) 

''I turn now from your President to thank you, 
merchants, professional men, leaders in the great 
and complex society of New York — to thank you 
for receiving me, not merely at this festal board, 
but also in that far more impressive reception 
which the close of this rainy day witnesses in 
your broad and beautiful avenue. I could not, I 
am sure, by any possible stretch of vanity take 
this large and generous demonstration to myself 
It is given to me only for the time as the repre- 
sentative of the principles which you and I hold 
in common, touching those great interests which 
underlie, as we believe, the prosperity of the 
Nation. (Applause.) And it is fitting that the 
commercial metropolis of the continent should 
lead ; it is fitting that the financial centre of the 
continent should lead ; it is fitting- that this oTeat 
city, second only in the world, should give an ex- 
pression to the continent of its views and its 
judgment on the important questions to be decided 
Tuesday next by the American people. (Cheers.) 

•'And I venture — not that I know it so well as 
you, but that I am spokesman for the present — I 



JAMES G. BLAim:. 

venture to remind you, men of New York, with 
your vv^ealth and your just influence and your 
magnificent prestige, that seventy per cent, of the 
entire property of this city has been acquired 
since Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated, the 4th 
of March, 1861. I should not mention here a 
fact of percentage and of statistics if it did not 
carry with it an argument and a moral. The 
common apprehension in regard to New York is 
that it is simply a great commercial city — so great 
that its exports and imports represent largely the 
major part of all that is exported from or imported 
into the United States. That we all know. But 
we are often prone to forget that New York is the 
largest manufacturing city in the world, with per- 
haps a single exception ; that of the $6,000,000,000 
of manufactures annually produced in the United 
States, this great Empire State furnishes one-fifth 
— -$1,200,000,000 — of which this great Empire 
City produces $500,000,000. And from these 
facts comes that great sympathy, that identity of 
interest Vv^hich has moved the previously existing 
conflicts between what have been known as the 
manufacturing and the commercial interests, and 
has taught us that there can be no true prosperity 
in the country unless the three great interests 
comprehended by agriculture, manufactures and 
commerce are acting in harmony, the one with the 
other, and joining together for a common end and 
for the common good. (Cheers.) 



WM. Mckinley. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 435 

It is usually thought that a change of Govern- 
ment means but little ; that we come together 
with our votes a given day and count them as the 
sun goes down, and one party goes out and 
another comes in. But, gentlemen, it is worth 
while to remember that the United States is pro- 
ceeding to-day upon a given basis of public policy 
— I might say upon a given series of public policies. 
We have a great financial system ; we have a 
great currency system ; we have an important 
National credit ; we have a levying of duties, as 
has been so well described by your distinguished 
President of the evening, so adjusted that the in- 
dustries of the country are fostered and encour- 
aged thereby ; we have three important constitu- 
tional amendments that grew out of the war, 
upon which, at this hour and in the hours, and the 
days, and the weeks, and the years to follow, 
great issues hang in this country. Are we — if we 
should be invited to step down and out and our 
opponents to step up and in (applause) — are we 
to understand that these policies are to be re- 
versed? (Cries of ''Yes! Yes!") Then if we 
are to understand that they are to be reversed we 
should, one and all, prepare for a grand disaster. 
('' Hear ! Hear !'' and cheers.) For a single illus- 
tration, let me recall to your minds that the repeal 
of ten lines in the National Bankino- Act would 
restore to vitality and vigor the old State-bank 
system from which we had happily escaped, as we 

25 



43^ 



JAMES a. ELAINE. 



thought, for all the remainder of our lives. 

(Applause.) 

''If these policies are to be reversed, you will 
have to recast your accounts and review your 
ledgers and prepare for a new and, I may say, a 
dangerous departure ; and if these poHcies are 
not to be reversed, they will certainly be better 
maintained by the great party which originated 
them and has thus far sustained them with vigor 
and success. (Applause.) 

*'As I have already said, we speak of New 
York as the great exporting and importing city, 
and from that perhaps we often give an exagger- 
ated importance, relatively speaking, to our 
foreign trade, because this magnificent metropolis 
never would have attained its grandeur and its 
wealth upon the foreign trade alone. We should 
never forget, important as that trade is, represent- 
ing the enormous sum of ^1,500,000,000 annually, 
that it sinks into insignificance and is dwarfed out 
of sight when we think of those vast domestic 
exchanges of which New York is the admitted 
centre and which annually exceed ^2,000,000,000. 
(Applause.) 

'* Our foreign trade naturally brings to our con- 
sideration the foreign relations of this country, so 
well described by my distinguished friend as 
always simple and sincere. It is the safeguard of 
Republics that they are not adapted to^ wan 
(Cheers.) I mean aggressive war. (Cheers.) 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 437 

And it is the safeguard of this RupubHc that in a 
defensive war we can defy the world. (Loud 
cheering.) This Nation to-day is in profound 
peace with the world. (Cheers.) But, in my 
judgment, it has before it a great duty which will 
not only make that profound peace permanent, but 
shall set such an exam.ple as will absolutely 
abolish war on this continent, and by a great 
example and a lofty moral precedent shall ulti- 
mately abolish it in other continents. (Great and 
long-continued cheering.) I am justified in say- 
ing that every one of the seventeen independent 
Powers of North and South America is not only 
willing but ready — is not only ready but eager — 
to enter into a solemn compact in a congress that 
may be called in the name of peace to agree that 
if, unhappily, differences shall arise — as differ- 
ences will arise between men and nations — they 
shall be settled upon the peaceful and Christian 
basis of arbitration. (Great cheering.) 

''And, as I have often said before, I am glad to 
repeat in this great centre of civilization and 
power that in my judgment no National spectacle, 
no international spectacle, no continental spec- 
tacle, could be more grand than that the Repub- 
lics of the Western W orld should meet together 
and solemnly agree that neither the soil of 
North nor that of South America shall be here- 
after stained by brothers' blood. (Prolonged 
cheering.) 



438 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



''The Republican party, gentlemen, cannot be 
said to be on trial. (Cheers.) To be on trial 
implies something to be tried for. (''Right!" 
" That's so ! and cheers.) The Republican 
party in its twenty-three years of rulership has 
advanced the interests of this country far beyond 
that of any of its predecessors in power. It has 
elevated the standard of America — it has increased 
its wealth in a ratio never before reahzed, and, I 
may add, never before dreamed of (Great 
cheering.) 

" Statistics, I know, are dry ; and I have dwelt 
so much upon them in the last six weeks that 
they might be supposed to be especially dry to me. 
And yet I never can forget the eloquence of the 
fiorures which tell us that the wealth of this grreat 
Empire State when the Republican party took the 
reins of government was estimated at ^i,8oo,- 
000,000, and that twenty years afterward, under 
the influence of an industrial and financial system 
for which that party is proudly responsible (great 
applause), under the influence of that industrial 
and financial system, the same tests which gave 
you $1,800,000,000 of property in i860 gave you 
$6,300,000,000 in 1880. (Loud and long-con- 
tinued cheering.) There has never been in all 
the history of financial progress — there has never 
been in all the history of the world — any parallel 
to this ; and I am sure, gentlemen, that the Re- 
publican party is not arrogant nor over-confident 



7 HE CAMPAIGN OF 1884, 



439 



when it claims* to itself the credit of organizing 
and maintaining the industrial system which 
gave to you and your associates in enterprise the 
equal and just laws which enable you to make this 
marvelous progress. (Great cheering.) 

^'As I have said, that party is not on trial. 
If it has made mistakes, they have been merged 
and forgotten in the greater success which has 
corrected them. (Cheers.) If it has had internal 
differences, they are laid aside. (Cheers.) If it 
has had factional strife, I am sure that has ceased. 
(Renewed cheering.) And I am equally sure 
that, looking to the history of the past and look- 
ing to that great future which we are justified in 
prophesying, this Imperial State cannot afford to 
reverse, and therefore will not reverse, those great 
policies upon which it has grown and advanced 
from glory to glory. (Enthusiastic cheering.) 

I thank you, gentlemen ; I thank that larger 
number with whom I have already had the plea- 
sure of exchanging greetings to-day, I thank the 
ministers, the merchants, the lawyers, the pro- 
fessional men, the mechanics, the laboring men 
of New York (applause), for a cordial reception, 
an over-generous welc9me, which in all the muta- 
tions of my future life will be to me among the 
proudest and most precious of my memories.'* 

The most important incident of this visit to 
New York, however, occurred a few hours before 
this banquet, at ten o'clock on the morning of 



440 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



October 29th. At that time the Fifth Avenue 
Hotel, where Mr. Blaine was staying, was visited 
by hundreds of clergymen of various denomina- 
Uons, who assembled for the purpose of making 
to him a formal address. The assemblage was 
called to order by the Rev. Dr. James M. King, 
one of the foremost ministers of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. The Rev. Dr. Samuel D. 
Burchard, a superannuated Presbyterian minister, 
v/as made Chairman, and the Rev. Dr. Robert 
S. McArthur, one of the best-known Baptist 
preachers of the city, was made Secretary. 7"he 
following resolutions were then presented by Dr. 
King, read and unanimously adopted : 

Resolved^ i. — That we believe that the triumph of the 
principles of the Republican party is essential to the welfare 
of the country and to the preservation of the results of the 
late civil strife, and consequently that the election of its rep- 
resentatives in the persons of the Hon. James G. Blaine and 
Gen. John A. Logan is imperative. 

'^2.— That we believe in the purity of the personal charac- 
ter of these standard-bearers, and also believe in their trained 
capacity as statesmen to meet the claims of the high offices 
for which they are in nomination. 

^^3. — That we protest against the coronation of con- 
ceded personal impurity as represented by the head of the 
Democratic ticket, and, while we deplore the necessity, we do 
not evade the responsibility of declaring our judgment to the 
v/orld of this insult to Christian civilization embodied in such 
nomination for the Presidency of the Republic. 

^^4. — That we are opposed to putting a premium on disloy- 
alty as presented by the candidate for the Vice-Presidency of 
the Democratic party. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 



5. — '"That we exhort all well-meaning and loyal citizens, 
regardless of party, when purity is at stake, not, by voting 
for the Prohibition candidate, to cast a half-vote for the Demo- 
cratic party with the semi-sanction of impurity and 
dissipation, nor to cast a whole vote for a man whose name 
is now the conspicuous synonym of incapacity and incon- 
tinency. 

'^6. — That we exhort our fellow-citizens to cast one vote 
for virtue in the home, for protection for the rights of the 
humblest citizens at home and abroad, for protection for 
American industries, for the settlement of international dif- 
ferences by arbitration, for the war against polygamy, for 
decent treatment of Indians, for the preservation of the 
results of the wars of the Revolution and of the Rebellion, 
for every sacred interest of our beloved country, by voting 
the Republican ticket at the ensuing election." 

The Chairman then appointed as a committee 
to receive Mr. Blaine, when he should come be- 
fore the meeting, Dr. King, Dr. McArthur, the 
Rev. Dr. Spear^ of the Presbyterian Church, the 
Rev. Dr. Brown, of the Jewish Church, the Rev. 
Dr. J. G. Roberts, of the Congregational Church, 
and Richard Lawrence, of the Society of Friends. 
The entire body of clergymen then went out into 
the main corridor of the hotel, and presently Mr. 
Blaine came down the stairway leaning on the arm 
of Dr. King. Close behind him were Mrs. Blaine, 
Walker Blaine, the daughters of Mr. and Mrs. 
Blaine, and the Hon. Levi P. Morton. Mr. Blaine 
stopped a few steps from the foot of the stairway, 
and the Rev. Dr. Burchard ascended to his side 
and addressed him as follows : 



442 JAMES G, BLAINE. 

**We are very happy to welcome you to this 
city. You see here a representation of all de- 
nominations of this city. You see the large num- 
ber that are represented. We are your friends, 
Mr. Blaine, and, notwithstanding all the calumnies 
that have been urged in the papers against you, 
we stand by your side. (Shouts of Amen.") 
We expect to vote for you next Tuesday. We 
have higher expectations, which are that you will 
be the President of the United States, and that 
you will do honor to your name, to the United 
States, and to^ the high office you will occupy. 
We are Republicans, and don't propose to leave 
our party and identify ourselves with the party 
w^hose antecedents have been Rum, Romanism 
and Rebellion. We are loyal to our flag. We 
are loyal to you." 

At the words Rum, Romanism and Rebel- 
lion," Mr. Blaine started perceptibly and an ex- 
pression of pained surprise flashed over his face. 
But he said nothing at the moment concerning 
them, and they passed unnoticed by most of those 
who v/ere present. The other members of the 
^committee then addressed Mr. Blaine briefly, and 
he responded in the following terms : 

''Mr. Chairman and Reverend Gentlemen: 
— This is altogether a very remarkable assem- 
blage — remarkable beyond any of which I have 
known in the history of political contests in the 
United States — and it does not need my personal 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1S84. 443 

assurance that you should know that I am very 
deeply impressed by it. I do not feel that I am 
speaking to these hundreds of men merely. I am 
speaking to the great congregations and the great 
religious opinion which is behind them, and, as 
they represent the great Christian bodies, I know 
and realize the full weight of that which you say 
to me and of the influence which you tender me. 
Were it to me personally, I confess that I should 
be overcome by the compliment and the weight 
of confidence which it carries, but I knov/ that it 
is extended to me as the representative of the 
party whose creed and whose practices are in 
harmony with the churches. The Republican 
party, from its very outset, stood upon the im- 
pregnable platform of opposition to the extension 
of human slavery, and stood on that platform till 
it was drifted by the hostility it provoked into a 
larger assertion of national sovereignty and 
thence into a bloody conflict to maintain it. From 
that onward I defy any man to point to a single 
measure of the Republican party which could 
not challenge the approbation of Christian min- 
isters and the approval of God. And when, as 
one of the reverend speakers has said, I narrowed 
the issue when I spoke of it (coming down to a 
question of the tariff"), I did not miean to exclude 
therefrom — I could not mean it — that great history 
of the party which is its wealth and its creed, and 
which gives to you and to all that stand behind 



444 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



you the assurance that, whatever issue it attempts 
to enforce, it will do it in good faith. They can 
no more separate a party from its history than 
you can separate a man from his character, and 
when the great make-up of public opinion is ready 
to take into account the origin, progress, the 
measures, the character of the party, and the 
character of its public men. 

''What I meant by saying that the tariff was 
the conclusive issue was that it steps to the fore- 
front, not in exclusion of a thousand other im- 
portant issues ; but for this critical occasion, and 
at the close of this great campaign, it stands forth 
as that issue which represents bread to the hun- 
gry, clothing to the naked, and prosperity to the 
entire people. And the tariff is, therefore, merely 
as a national issue, distinct and separate from the 
great moral issues, because, as I have said before 
Western audiences, I say here, you cannot im- 
press a man if he is hungry with any other 
thought than that he shall be fed. You cannot 
impress man if he is naked with any other 
thought than that he shall be clothed, and there- 
fore that public policy and statesmanship is 
highest and best that attends to the primary 
needs of human nature first, and says, here is 
bread for the hungry, here is clothing for the 
naked. And the tariff, which protects the Ameri- 
can laborer in his wages, the American capitalist 
in his investments, the inventive talenrt in the 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 445 

country in Its enterprise, is the issue which lies at 
the very foundation of the success of the Christian 
religion. When you send out your missions to 
the destitute places you clothe the little naked 
children and give them food at the first step. 
Therefore, I repeat, that the great conflict of 1884 
closes with the people of the United States stand- 
ing face to face in two parties, saying whether 
they will adhere to that policy of protection which 
has trebled the wealth of the United States in 
twenty years, or whether they will abandon it and 
return once more to the failing theory of free 
trade. (''Never! Never!") It involves other 
issues, too. No nation can grow so powerful as 
the United States has grown and is growing, con- 
tinually enlarging its relations with other nations. 
As these relations become so enlarged they be- 
come complicated, and therefore the foreign policy 
of the United States goes right along with its 
domestic policy — supplements and complements 
it — and we cannot in any affair of our destiny and 
our policy separate one from the other. 

Now, gentleman of the church, I address an 
earnest word to you. The policy of the United 
States in the past and in the future must be one 
of broad, liberal Christian principles, and in that 
policy it must be one in my judgment which draws 
nearer within the circle of the sympathies of the 
United States those other struggling Republics 
of North and South America, which bring them 



JAMES G, BLAINE. 

first into trade relations and then into close per- 
sonal and moral relations, and I believe that we 
shall not only have the great gain that comes from 
intercourse, but we shall enlarge the civilization 
of the Ano-lo-Saxon until its limits shall include 
the most Southern point of the continent. 

''I did not intend, in accepting and acknovrledg- 
ino- the oreat sense of obli^ration I feel for this 
honor, to go into a prolonged political speech. I 
have but indicated two leading points vrhich I 
think are involved in the pending election. It 
only remains for me to say to you that I recognize 
at its full worth — and its full worth is very great — 
the meanino" of this assemblao-e. We have no 
union of Church and State, but wo. have proved 
that the Church is stronger without the State, 
and we have proved that no State can be strong 
without the Church. Let us forward as vre 
have gone, the State grovring and strengthening 
by the example of the Church, and the Church 
growing and strengthening by liberal co-opera- 
tion with all the great reforms which it is the 
immediate province of the Governmient to forward 
and improve. Gentlemen, I thank you again, and 
bid you a very cordial good-morning.'' 

Hearty cheers were then given by the assembled 
clerorynien for Mr. and 3»Irs. Blaine, and the 
remarkable gathering dispersed. On October 30th 
Mr. Blaine was received at two or three enor- 
mous cr^therino-s in Brooklvn and on the followinor 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884.^ 447 

day one of the largest political parades ever seen 
in New York City was made in his honor, there 
being in line organized clubs from Brooklyn, 
Newark, Albany, Philadelphia and elsewhere. Mr. 
Blaine then set out for his home in Maine. 

Dr. Burchard's unfortunate expression, ''Rum, 
Romanism and Rebellion,'' did not pass unnoticed 
by Mr. Blaine's enemies. -Up to this point his 
campaign had been a prosperous one, and had 
the election been held before Dr. Burchard's 
speech was made there is no doubt but that he 
would have been handsomely elected. His 
despairing enemies grasped with exultant energy 
at the opportunity which that phrase afforded of 
alienating some of his supporters. The words 
were instantly taken up and spread broadcast 
throughout the country by telegram, in the news- 
papers, and in printed circulars, as well as by 
word of mouth. With unblushing mendacity it 
was asserted that Mr. Blaine himself had uttered 
the offensive expression. Handbills containing the 
words, fixing full responsibility for them upon Mr. 
Blaine, and construing them as an expression of 
his personal hostility to the Roman Catholic 
Church, w^ere distributed by tens of thousands to 
the members of all congregations of that faith. In 
this way hundreds and perhaps thousands of 
Roman Catholics were led to abandon their sup- 
port of Mr. Blaine. By the perversity of fate this 
incident occurred long enough in advance of the 



448 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



election to allow these calumnies to be spread 
throughout the land and to do the mischief that 
was intended, but not long enough to allow 
explanation to be made and Mr. Blaine to be 
vindicated. 

On reaching New Haven, on November ist, 
Mr. Blaine made the following address referring 
to this matter : 

''There has been placed in my hands since my 
arrival in New Haven an address from the clergy- 
men of this city expressing their respect and con- 
fidence, and, through the person who delivered it, 
the assurance that in matters of public right and 
in matters of public participation under the laws 
and Constitution of the United States they know 
no sect ; they know no Protestant, no Catholic, 
no Hebrew, but the equality of all. (''Good!'' 
and cheers.) In the city of Hartford I had a letter 
put into my hands asking me why I charged the 
Democratic party with being inspired by rum, 
Romanism and rebellion. (A voice, "You never 
said that.") My answer, in the first place, is that 
they put in my mouth an unfortunate expression 
of another man ; and, in the next place, it gives 
me an opportunity to say, at the close of the 
campaign, that in public speeches which I have 
made I have refrained carefully and instinctively 
from making any disrespectful allusion to the 
Democratic party. I differ from that party pro- 
foundly on matters of principle, but I have too 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884, 



449 



much respect for the milHons of my countrymen 
whom it embraces to assail it with epithets or 
abuse. Good ! Good ! " and cheers.) In the 
next place, I am sure that I am the last man in the 
United States who would make a disrespectful 
allusion to another man's relioion. The United 
States guarantees freedom of religious opinion, 
and before the law and under the Constitution 
the Protestant and the Catholic and the Hebrew^ 
stand entitled to absolutely the same recognition 
and the same protection (loud cheering) ; and if 
disrespectful allusion is here to be made against 
the religion of any man, as I have said, I am the 
last man to make it ; though Protestant by convic- 
tion and connected with a Protestant church, I 
should esteem myself of all men the most de- 
graded if, under any pressure or under any 
temptation, I could in any presence make a disre- 
spectful allusion to that ancient faith in which my 
mother lived and died. (Enthusiastic and long- 
continued cheering.) 

*'The question now before the people of the 
United States is not a religious one. The question 
to be settled in this election is one that comes home 
to the door-sill and the fireside of every i\mencan 
citizen. We have enjoyed in this country for the 
last twenty-three years the advantage of a pro- 
tective tariff. There is not a man within sound 
of my voice, there is not a man in Connecticut, 
there is not a man in New England, there is not 



450 



JAAIES G. BLAINE, 



a man in the United States, who is not directly 
or indirectly interested in the protective tariff. 
(Cheers.) I see before me a large assemblage, 
including, doubtless, many who earn their bread 
in the sweat of their faces, and to whom the daily 
wages of labor is a matter of great importance. 
I beg to remind them that the only agency which 
secures them higher wages for their labor than a 
man in the British Isles receives for the same 
labor, is the protective tariff. (Cheers.) When 
I look abroad in the State, and when I examine 
your statistics, I find that Connecticut has doubled 
its wealth in the last twenty years, and I submit 
that that rapid ratio of increase in thrift, inde- 
pendence and progress is a direct result of the 
protective tariff. (Loud cheering.) So that every 
man, whether he be a capitalist or laborer, whether 
he be manufacturer or operative, finds that the 
question of protecting American industry enters 
into the warp and woof of his daily life. The 
Republican party is nothing if it is not protective ; 
it is a cardinal doctrine in the creed of the Re- 
publican party that a protective tariff shall be 
maintained (cheers), and it has been the inva- 
riable practice of the Democratic party in Con- 
gress for more than fifty years past to oppose 
the policy of protection. Times have been dull 
for some months past. Why ? Clearly because 
of the uncertainty created in the business world 
by the agitation in Congress last winter of the 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 453 

tariff question, and the fact that the Democratic 
party came within two votes of destroying the 
protective tariff. Is there any man who doubts 
that, with the free trade theories of the Demo- 
crats, if they were elevated to power the protec- 
tive tariff would be destroyed ? If any man 
doubts that he doubts his senses ; he denies the 
record ; he will not listen to plain facts. The 
omens in the present contest are to be spoken of 
by you, not by me; but there are one or two 
things connected with it which I beg to refer to. 
I beg especially to refer to the fact that, in a 
larger degree than in any other campaign of which 
I have personal knowledge, the Republican party 
has the inestimable advantage of the sympathy 
and support of the great mass of the young men 
of the country (cheers), and the young men carry 
with them strength, confidence, the power to bear 
burdens and the power to give encouragement to 
others. The Republican part}^ began its exist- 
ence thirty years ago with the support of the 
young men. Twenty-eight years ago, before 
many who now hear me knew anything of politi- 
cal contests, that party entered the field for the 
first time in a National struofgfle. It selected a 
young man for its leader ; it selected a man in 
his forty-third year — the same age at which Wash-- 
ington was intrusted with the command of the 
Continental Army — a young man of great zeal, 
of great intelligence and of a career so heroic 

26 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 

that it partook largely of romance. Under his 
leadership the Republican party, in its very first 
National contest, alarmed if it did not defeat our 
opponents. Since then, twenty-eight years have 
been added to his age, bringing it up to the 
Psalmist's limit— three score years and ten ; but 
he is still fresh and vigorous in body and in mind, 
still warm in his support of the Republican party, 
and it is my especial pleasure to-day that I can, 
as I now do, introduce to you General John C. 
Fremont." (Prolonged cheering.) 

Malice had done its mischief, however, and it 
could not be undone. Mr. Blaine returned to 
his home at Augusta, receiving an imposing re- 
ception at Boston on the way. The election oc- 
curred on November 4th. The result turned 
upon the vote of New York State, and for some 
days that was in doubt. After an inexplicable 
delay on the part of the Democratic officers of 
election, a delay during which grave suspicions 
arose that the returns were being tampered with 
and falsified, it was announced that Mr. Cleve- 
land had carried the State by a narrow margin 
of 1,047 votes. The popular vote for the two 
candidates in the various States v/as as follows : 

STATES. BLAINE. CLEVELAND. 

Alabama, 59,591 93,95 ^ 

Arkansas, 50,895 72,927 

California, 102,416 89,288 

Colorado, 36,290 27,723 

Connecticut, 65,923 67,199 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 



455 



STATES. 


BLAINE. 


CLEVELAND. 


Delaware, 


12,951 


10,904 


Florida, 


28,031 


31,766 . 


Georgia, 


48,603 


94,667 


Illinois, 


337*474 


3^2,355 


Indiana, 


238,463 


244,990 


Iowa, 


197,089 


177,316 


Kansas, 


154,406 


90,132 


Kentucky, 


118,122 


152,961 


Louisiana, 


46,347 


62,540 


Maine, 


72,209 


52,140 


Maryland, 


«5,()99 


• - 96,932 


Massachusetts, 


- 146,724 


122,481 


Michigan, 


192,669 


149,^35 


Minnesota, 


111,923 


70,144 


Mississippi, 


43*509 


76,510 


Missouri, 


202,929 


235,988 


Nebraska, 


76,912 


54,391 


Nevada, 


7,193 


5,578 


New Hampshire, 


43,249 


39,183 


New Jersey, 


123,440 


127,798 


New York, 


562,005 


563,154 


North Carolina, 


125,068 


142,952 ^ 


Unio, 


400,082 


300,250 


Oregon, 


20,oOO 


24,604 


Pennsylvania, 


473,804 


392,785 


Knode Islana, 


19,030 


12,391 


South Carolina, 


21,733 


09,090 


iennessee, 


124,078 


133*258 


Texas, 


93,141 


225,309 


Vermont, 


39,514 


17,331 


Virginia, 


139,356 


145,497 


West Virginia, 


63,096 


67,317 


Wisconsin, 


161,157 


146,459 



Mr. Blaine thus received a total of 4,851,981 
votes or 48.22 per cent, of the whole ; Mr. Cleve- 
land received 4,874,986 votes, or 48.48 per cent. 
General Benjamin F. Butler, who was the Presi- 
dential candidate of the Greenback-Labor party, 



456 JAMES G. BLAIXE. 

received 175,370 votes, and ]\Ir. John P. St. John, 
the candidate of the Prohibition party, 150,369. 
Mr. Cleveland thus had a plurality of 23,005, but 
failed to receive a clear majority of the popular 
vote. In the electoral college ]\Ir. Blaine received 
182 votes and Mr. Cleveland 219. 

This defeat was a bitter disappointment to Mr. 
Blaine, and a still m.ore bitter disappointment to 
his millions of admirers and supporters throughout 
the country. It vras exasperating to think that he 
had been defeated through the malicious interpre- 
tadon of a stupid remark made by a purblind old 
gentleman at the very end of the campaign. But 
even more serious consideration was demanded 
by the fact that in this, as in all other elections 
since 1S76, force and fraud carried the day in a 
number of the Southern States, so that their votes 
were counted for the candidate of the party that 
was really in the minority. This subject had 
frequendy been discussed with telling force by 
Mr. Blaine in the two Houses of Con^-ress, and 
he referred to it once more in calm, and tem.perate 
yet unmistakably emphatic terms in the following 
address, which he m.ade at AuQ;usta, on November 
1 8th, to a OTeat throne of his fellow-tovvmsmen, 
who visited him to express their confidence and 
esteem : 

''Friexdsaxd Xeighbors : — The National con- 
test is over, and bv the narrowest of maroins we 
have lost. I thank you for your call, which if not 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 457 

one of joyous congratulations, is one, I am sure, 
of confidence and of sanguine hope for the future. 
I thank you for the public opportunity you give 
me to express my sense of obligation, not only to 
you, but to all the Republicans of Maine. They 
responded to my nomination with genuine en,- 
thusiasm and ratifi.ed it by a superb vote. I count 
it as one of the honors and gratifications of my 
public career that the party in Maine, after strug- 
gling hard for the last six years, and twice within 
that period losing the State, has come back in this 
campaign to the old-fashioned 20,000 plurality. 
No other expression of popular confidence and 
esteem could equal that of the people am^ong 
whom I have lived for thirty years, and to whom I 
am attached by all the ties that ennoble human 
nature and give joy and dignity to life. 

''After Maine— indeed, along with Maine — my 
first thought is always of Pennsylvania. How can 
I fittingly express my thanks for that unparalleled 
majority of more than 80,000 votes— a popular 
indorsement which has deeply touched my heart, 
and which has, if possible, increased m.y affection 
for the grand old Commonwealth ; an affection 
which I inherited from my ancestry, and v»^hich i 
shall transmit to my children ? 

But I do not limit my thanks to the State of - 
my residence and the State of my birth. I owe 
much to the true and zealous friends in New 
England, who worked so nobly for the Republican 



458 



JAMES G. BLAIXE. 



party and its candidates, and to the eminent 
scholars and divines who, stepping aside from 
their ordinary avocations, made my cause their 
cause, and to lo\'alty to principle added the special 
compliment of standing as my representative in 
the National strueele. 

''But the achievements for the Republican 
cause in the East are even surpassed by the 
splendid victories in the West. In that magnificent 
cordon of States that stretches from the foot-hills of 
the Alleghenies to the Golden Gate of the Pacific, 
beginning with Ohio and ending with California, 
the Republican banner was borne so loftily that 
but a single State failed to join in the wild acclaim 
of triumph. Nor should I do justice to mv own 
feelings if I failed to thank the Republicans of the 
Empire State, who encountered so many discour- 
agements and obstacles, who fought foes from 
within and foes from without, and who wag-ed so 
strong a battle that a change of one vote in ever}^ 
2,000 would have given us the victory in the Nation. 
Indeed, a change of a little more than 5,000 votes 
VN^ould have transferred New York, Indiana, Nev\^ 
Jersey and Connecticut to the Republican stand- 
ard, and would have made the North as solid as 
the South. 

My thanks would still be incomplete if I should 
fail to recoo^nize with special orratitude that o-reat 
body of working men, both native and foreign 
born, who gave me their earnest support, breaking 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 



459 



from old personal and party ties, and finding in 
the principles which I represented in the canvass 
the safeguard and protection of their ov/n fireside 
interests. 

The result of the election, my friends, will be 
regarded in the future, I think, as extraordinary. 
The Northern States, leaving out the cities of 
New York and Broaklyn from the count, sustained 
the Republican cause by a majority of more than 
400,000 — almost half a million, indeed — of the 
popular vote. The cities of New York and 
Brooklyn threw their great strength and influence 
with the solid South, and were the decisive element 
which gave to that section the control of the 
National Government. Speaking now not at all 
as a defeated candidate, but simply as a lo3^al and 
devoted American, I think the transfer of the 
political power of the Government to the South is 
a great National misfortune. It is a misfortune 
because it introduces an element which cannot 
insure harmony and prosperity to the people, 
because it introduces into a Republic the rule of 
a minority. The first instinct of an American is 
equality— equality of right, equality of privilege, 
equality of political power — that equality which 
says to every citizen, ' Your vote is just as good, 
just as potential, as the vote of any other citizen.' 
That cannot be said to-day in the United States. 

The course of affairs in the South has crushed 
out the political power of more than 6,000,000 



460 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



American citizens, and has transferred it by 
violence to others. Forty-two. Presidential Elec- 
tors are assigned to the South on account of the 
colored population, and yet the colored population, 
with more than 1,100,000 legal votes, have been 
unable to choose a single Elector. Even in those 
States where they have a majority of more than a 
hundred thousand they are deprived of free suf- 
frage, and their rights as citizens are scornfully 
trodden under foot. The eleven States that 
comprised the Rebel Confederacy had, by the 
census of 1880, 7,500,000 of white population 
and 5,300,000 colored population. The colored 
population, almost to a man, desire to support the 
Republican party, but by a system of cruel 
intimidation and by violence and murder, when- 
ever violence and murder are thought necessary, 
they are absolutely deprived of all political power. 
If the outrage stopped there, it would be bad 
enough ; but it does not stop there, for not only 
is the negro population disfranchised, but the 
power which rightfully and constitutionally belongs 
to it is transferred to the white population, ena- 
bling the white population of the South to exert an 
Electoral influence far beyond that exerted by the 
same number of white people in the North. 

To illustrate just how it works to the destruc- 
tion of all fair elections, let me present to you five 
States in the late Confederacy and five loyal 
States of the North, possessing in each section 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884, 461 

the same number of Electoral votes. In the 
South the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Al- 
abama, Georgia and South Carolina have in the 
aggregate forty-eight Electoral votes. They 
have 2,800,000 white people, and over 3,000,000 
colored people. In the North the States of Wis- 
consin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas and California 
have likewise in the aggregate forty-eight Elec- 
toral votes, and they have a white population of 
5,600,000, or just double the five Southern States 
which I have named. These Northern States 
have practically no colored population. It is 
therefore evident that the white men in those 
Southern States by usurping and absorbing the 
rights of the colored men are exerting just double 
the political power of the white men in the 
Northern States. I submit, my friends, that such 
a condition of affairs is extraordinary, unjust, and 
derogatory to the manhood of the North. Even 
those who are vindictively opposed to negro 
suffrage will not deny that if Presidential Electors 
are assigned to the South by reason of the negro 
population that population ought to be permitted 
free suffrage in the election. To deny that clear 
proposition is to affirm that a Southern white man 
ia the Gulf States is entitled to double the politi- 
cal power of a Northern white man in the Lake 
States. It is to affirm that a Confederate soldier 
shall wield twice the influence in the Nation that 
a Union soldier can, and that a perpetual and 



462 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

constantly increasing superiority shall be conceded 
to the Southern white man in the Government of 
the Union. If that be quietly conceded in this 
generation it will harden into custom, until the 
badge of inferiority will attach to the Northern 
white man as odiously as ever Xorm.an noble 
stamped it upon Saxon churl. 

''This subject is of deep interest to the labor- 
inp- men of the North. With the Southern De- 
mocracy triumphant in their States and in the 
nation, the negro will be compelled to work for 
just such wages as the whites may decree ; vvages 
which vvill amount, as did the supplies of the 
slaves, to a bare subsistence, equal in cash to per- 
haps 35 cents per day, if averaged over the en- 
tire South. The white laborer in the North will 
soon feel the distinctive ehect of this upon his 
own wages. The Republicans have clearly seen 
from the earliest davs of reconstruction that 
wages in the South- miust be raised to a just 
recomipense of the laborer or wages in the North 
ruinously lowered, and the party have steadily 
worked for the former result. The reverse in- 
fluence will now be set in motion, and that condi- 
tion of affairs produced which vears a^^o I\Ir. Lin- 
coin warned the free laboring men of the North 
Vvill prove hostile to their independence, and will 
inevitably lead to a ruinous reduction of wages. 
A mere difference of the color of the skin will not 
suffice to maintain an entirely different standard 



THE CAMPAIGN- OF 1884. ' 4^3 

in wages of contiguous and adjacent States, 
and the voluntary will be compelled to yield to 
the involuntary. So completely have the colored 
men in the South been already deprived by the 
Democratic party of their constitutional and legal 
right as citizens of the United States that they re- 
gard the advent of that party to National power 
as the signal of their enslavement, and are 
affrighted because they think all legal protection 
for them is gone. 

''Few persons in the North realize how com-,. 
pletely the chiefs of the Rebellion wield the politi- 
cal power which has triumphed in the late elec- 
tion. It is a portentous fact that the Democratic 
Senators who come from the States of the late 
Confederacy, all— and I mean all without a 
single exception — -personally participated in the 
Rebellion ao^ainst the National Governm.ent. It 
is a still more significant fact that in those States 
no man who was loyal to the Union, no matter 
hov/ strong a Demxocrat he may be to-day, has 
the slightest chance of political promotion. The 
one great avenue to honor in that section is 
the record of zealous service in the war 
against the Government. It is certainly an 
astounding fact that the section in which friend- 
ship for the Union in the day of its trial and agony 
is still a political disqualification should be called 
now to rule over the Union. All this takes place 
during the lifetime of the generation that fought 



464 JAMES G. BLAINE, 

m 

the war, and elevates into practical command of 
the Am.erican Government the identical men who 
organized for its destruction and plunged us into 
the bloodiest contest of modern times. 

I have spoken of the South as placed by the 
late election in possession of the Government, 
and I m.ean all that my words imply. The South 
furnished nearly three-fourths of the Electoral 
votes that defeated the Republican party, and 
they will step to the command of the Democrats 
as unchallenged and as unrestrained as they 
held the same position for thirty years before the 
war. 

''Gentlemen, there cannot be political inequal- 
ity among the citizens of a free Republic ; there 
cannot be a minority of white men in the South 
ruling a majority of white men in the North. 
Patriotism, self-respect, pride, protection for per- 
son and safety for country all cry out against it. 
The very thought of it stirs the blood of men 
who inherit equality from the Pilgrims who first 
stood on Plymouth Rock, and from liberty-loving 
patriots who came to the Delaware with William 
Penn. It becomes the primal question of Ameri- 
can manhood. It demands a hearino- and a set- 
tlement, and that settlement will vindicate the 
equality of American citizens in all personal and 
civil rights. It will, at least, establish the equal- 
ity of white men under the National Government, 
and will give to the Northern man, who fought to 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1884. 465 

preserve the Union, as large a voice in its gov-, 
ernment as may be exercised by the Southern 
man who fought to destroy the Union. 

''The contest just closed utterly dwarfs the 
fortunes and fates of candidates, whether success- 
ful or unsuccessful. Purposely — I may say in- 
stinctively — I have discussed the issues and con- 
sequences of that contest without reference to 
my own defeat, without the remotest reference to 
the gentleman who is elevated to the Presidency. 
Towards him personally I have no cause for the 
slightest ill-will, and it is with cordiality I express 
the wish that his official career may prove gratify- 
ing to himself and beneficial to the country, and 
that his administration may overcome the embar- 
rassments which the peculiar source of its pov/er 
imposes upon it from the hour of its birth." 

During the administration of President Cleve- 
land, which began on March 4, 1885, Mr. Blaine 
remained in private life. Some of his time was 
spent in literary work and some in European 
travel. He spent much tim^e in Great Britain, 
France and Italy, and w^as everywhere received with 
the utmost respect, and treated more as though he 
were the sovereign head of a great nation than a 
mere private citizen. He took a keen interest 
in the progress of political affairs in the United 
States, and frequently expressed his views on 
important issues of the day with characteristic 
lucidity and force. The Republican party was 



466 



JAMES G, BLAINE, 



overwhelmingly determined to make him its can- 
didate a second time, in 1888, and although he 
did not personally favor this plan, and was 
indeed, on account of impaired health, inclined 
to retire from active participation in public affairs, 
popular enthusiasm in his behalf and detennination 
..to place him at last in the AVhite House, grew 
steadily month by month, and year by year. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 

Free Trade Brought Forward as the Leading Issue of the Democratic 
Party — President Cleveland's Message on the Subject in December, 
1S87 — Text of the Document that Sounded the Key-n>Ae of the 
Coming Campaign — A Prompt Reply by Mr. Blaine ly Cable from 
Paris — Report of the Memorable Interview between Mr. Blaine and 
Mr. George W. Smalley — Its Effect upon Public Opinion and Poli- 
tics in the United States. 

President Cleveland had, before taking office, 
expressed an emphatic opinion against the re- 
election of a President for a second term. But 
as his own term of offi.ce drew toward its close it 
was apparent, and was universally understood, 
that he was a candidate for re-nomination and re- 
election. During the first two and a half years 
of his administration nothing had occurred greatly 
to strengthen bis hold upon public favor. His 
management of the Executive offxce had been in 
the main acceptable. His political opponents 
had, of course, sharply criticised him, but his own 
party almost unanimously gave him earnest sup- 
port. It was desirable that some im_portant issue 
should be brought forward prominently on which 
the campaign of 1888 should be fought. Such 
an issue the leaders of the Democratic party 
found in the fiscal system of the Nation. 

467 



468 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

Under the protective tariff, adopted by the Re- 
pubHcan party in 1861, and maintained with 
various modifications down to the present time, 
the National finances had been eminently pros- 
perous. The great war debt had been largely 
reduced, specie payments had been resumed, and 
the credit of the Government was unequalled in 
the money markets of the world. Liberal appro- 
priations had been made for public works of 
National importance, for pensions to disabled 
soldiers and their families, and for the redemp- 
tion of Government bonds. At the same time, 
so great was the business prosperity of the coun- 
try and the consequent revenues of the Govern-* 
ment that a very considerable surplus had accu- 
mulated in the National Treasury. This was 
seized upon by Mr. Cleveland and his party as- 
sociates as the issue for the next campaign. They 
argued that the surplus revenue was far too large; 
that the accumulation of such a vast sum of 
money in the National Treasury not only invited 
corruption, but was a direct injury to business ; 
that it was a robbery of the people to tax them, 
on their imports, so largely beyond the needs of 
the Government ; and that, therefore, the tariff 
should be so revised as to reduce the revenue 
immediately to the actual needs of the Govern- 
ment, and to aboUsh the surplus. There should 
be, in other words, a tariff for revenue only, and 
not at all for protection. That would amount 



A CHALLEKGE AND ITS AXSV/ER. 471 

to free trade, as that term is understood in 
England. 

A considerable portion of the Democratic party 
was strongly opposed to such a policy. But the 
overwhelming majority of those in Congress, led 
by Mr. Carlisle, the Speaker of the House, and 
Mr. Mills, the Leader on the Floor of the House, 
favored it, and their counsel prevailed with the 
President. On the meeting of Congress, in De- 
cember, 1887, accordingly, he sent in a message, 
devoted, not to a general review of the interests 
of the country, as was customary, but exclusively 
to a discussion of the one subject of the sur- 
plus revenue and the need of tariff reform. As 
a matter of record, and to enable the reader, 
comprehensively and exactly, to understand the 
attitude thereafter taken by Mr. Blaine and the 
arguments put forward by him, the text of the 
m^essage is herewith given in full : 

To the Congress of the United States : — You 
are confronted at the threshold of your legisla- 
tive duties with a condition of the National 
finances which imperatively demands immediate 
and careful consideration. 

The amount of money annually exacted, through 
the operation of present laws, from the industries 
and necessities of the people, largely exceeds the 
sum necessary to meet the expenses of the 
Government. 



27 



472 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

When we consider that the theory of our insti- 
tutions guarantees to every citizen the full enjoy- 
ment of all the fruits of his industry and enter- 
prise, with only such deduction as may be his 
share towards the careful and economical main- 
tenance of the Government which protects him, 
it is plain that the exaction of more than this is 
indefensible extortion, and a culpable betrayal of 
American fairness and justice. This wrong, in- 
flicted upon those who bear the burden of 
National taxation, like other wTongs, multiplies a 
brood of evil consequences. The public Treasury, 
which should only exist as a conduit conveying 
the people's tribute to its legitimate objects of 
expenditure, becomes a hoarding place for money 
needlessly withdrawn from trade and the people's 
use, thus crippling our National energies, sus- 
pending our country's development, preventing 
investment in productive enterprise, threatening 
financial disturbance, and inviting schemes of 
public plunder. 

This condition of our Treasury is not altogether 
new ; and it has more than once of late been sub- 
mitted to the people's representatives in the Con- 
gress, who alone can apply a remedy. And yet the 
situation still continues, with aggravated incidents, 
more than ever presaging financial convulsion and 
widespread disaster. 

It will not do to neglect the situation because 
its dangers are not now palpably imminent and 



A CHALLENGE AND LTS ANSIVEE. 47^ 

apparent. They exist none the less certainly, and 
await the unforeseen and unexpected occasion 
when suddenly they will be precipitated upon us. 

On the 30th day of June, 1885, the excess of 
revenues over public expenditures after comply- 
ing with the annual requirement of the sinkmg- 
fund act, was $17,859,735.84; during the year 
ended June 30, 1886, such excess amounted to 
$49,405,545.20 ; and during the year ended June 
30, 1S87, reached the sum of $55,567,849.54. 

The annual contributions to the- sinkinor fund 
during the three years above specified, amount- 
ing in the aggregate to $138,058,320.94, and de- 
ducted from the surplus as stated, Avere made by 
calling in for that purpose outstanding three per 
cent, bonds of the Governm.ent, Durino- the six 
months prior to June 30, 1887, the surplus reve- 
nue had grown so large by repeated accumula- 
tions, and it was feared the withdrawal of this 
great sum. of money needed by the people, would 
so affect the business of the country, that the sum 
of $79,864, 100 of such surplus was applied to the 
paymient of the principal and interest of the three 
per cent, bonds still outstanding, and which were 
then payable at the option of the Government. 
The precarious condition of financial affairs among 
the people still needing relief, immediately after 
the 30th day of June, 1887, remainder of the 
three per cent, bonds then outstanding, amount- 
ing with principal and interest to the sum of 



JAMES G. BLAIXE. 
4/4 ^ 

518.877,500, were called in and applied to the 
sinking-fund contribution for the current fiscal 
year. Xotwithstanding these operations of the 
Treasury Department, representations of distress 
in business circles not only continued but increased, 
and absolute peril seemed at hand. In these cir- 
cumistances the contribution to the sinking fund 
for the current hscal year was at once completed 
by the expenditure of S- 7-684. 2 S3. 5 5 in the pur- 
chase of Government bonds not yet due bearing 
four and four and a-haif per cent, interest, the 
premium paid thereon averaging about twent\'- 
four per cent, for the former and eight per cent, 
for the latter. In addition to this the interest 
accruiu'^ durincr- the current vear uDon the out- 
standing bonded indebtedness of the Governm.ent 
was to som.e extent anticioated. and banks 
selected as depositories of public mioney were per- 
mitted to somev\-hat increase their deposits. 

While the expedients thus employed, to re- 
lease to the people the mioney l}'ing idle in the 
Treasury, served to avert immediate danger, our 
surplus revenues have continued to accumulate, 
the excess for the present year amounting on the 
1st day of December to S55<-58. 701. 19. and esti- 
mated to reach the sum of si 13. 000. coo on the 
30th of June next, at which date it is expected 
that this sum. added to prior accumulations, will 
swell the surplus in the Treasury to 3140,- 
000,000. 



A CHALLENGE AND LTS ANSWER. 475 

There seems to be no assurance that, with such 
a withdrawal from the use of the people's circulat- 
ing medium, our business community may not in 
the near future be subjected to the same distress 
which was quite lately produced from the same 
cause. And while the functions of our National 
Treasury should be few and simple, and while its 
best condition would be reached, I believe, by its 
entire disconnection with private business inter- 
ests, yet when, by a perversion of its purposes, 
it idly holds money uselessly subtracted from 
the channels of trade, there seems to be reason 
for the claim' that som^e legitimate means should 
be devised by the Government to restore 
in an emergency, without waste or extrava- 
gance, such money to its place among the 
people. 

If such an emergency arises there now exists no 
clear and undoubted executive powder of relief. 
Heretofore the redemption of three per cent, 
bonds, which were payable at the option of the 
Government, has afforded a means for the dis- 
bursem.ent of the excess of our revenues ; but 
these bonds have all been retired, and there are no 
bonds outstanding the payment of which w^e have 
the right to insist upon. The contribution to the 
sinking fund which furnishes the occasion for ex- 
penditure in the purchase of bonds has been 
already made for the current year, so that there 
is no outlet in that direction. 



JAMES G, BLAINE. 

In the present state of legislation the only pre- 
tence of any existing executive power to restore, 
at this time, any part of our surplus revenues to 
the people by its expenditure, consists in the sup- 
position that the Secretary of the Treasury may 
enter the m.arket and purchase the bonds of the 
Government not yet due, at a rate of premium to 
be agreed upon. The only provision of law fromi 
which such a power could be derived is found in 
an appropriation bill passed a number of years 
ago ; and it is subject to the suspicion that it was 
intended as temporary and limited in its applica- 
tion, instead of conferringr a continuinor discretion 
and authority. No condition ought to exist which 
would justify the grant of power to a single 
official, upon his judgment of its necessity, to 
w^ithhold from or release to the business of the 
people, in an unusual manner, money held in the 
Treasury, and thus affect, at his will, the financial 
situation of the country ; and if it is deemed v/ise 
to lodge in the Secretary of the Treasury the 
authority in the present juncture to purchase 
bonds, it should be plainly vested, and provided, 
as far as possible, with such checks and limitations 
as v/ill define this official's right and discretion, 
and at the same time relieve him from undue ■ 
responsibility. 

In considering the question of purchasing bonds 
as a means of restoring to circulation the surplus 
money accumulating in the Treasury, it should be ^ 



A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER, 477 

borne in mind that premiums must of course be 
paid upon such purchase, that there may be a 
large part of these bonds held as investments 
which cannot be purchased at any price, and that 
combinations among holders who are willing to 
sell may unreasonably enhance the cost of such 
bonds to the Government. 

It has been suggested that the present bonded 
debt might be refunded at a less rate of interest, 
and the difference between the old and new 
security paid in cash, thus finding. use for the sur- 
plus in the Treasury. The success of this plan, 
it is apparent, must depend upon the volition* of 
the holders of the present bonds ; and it is not 
entirely certain that the inducement which must 
be offered them would result in more financial 
benefit to the Government than the purchase of 
bonds, while the latter proposition would reduce 
the principal of the debt by actual payment, in- 
stead of extending it. 

The proposition to deposit the money held by 
the Government in banks throughout the country, 
for use by the people, is, it seems to me, exceed- 
ingly objectionable in principle, as establishing 
too close a relationship between the operations of 
the Government Treasury and the business of the 
country, and too extensive a commingling of their 
money, thus fostering an unnatural reliance in 
private business upon public funds. If this scheme 
should be adopted, it should only be done as a 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 

temporary expedient to meet an urgent necessity. 
Legislative and executive effort should generally 
be in the opposite direction, and should have a 
tendency to divorce, as much and as fast as can 
safely be done, the Treasury Department from 
private enterprise. 

Of course it is not expected that unnecessary 
and extravagant appropriations will be made for 
the purpose of avoiding the accumulation of an 
excess of revenue. Such expenditure, beside the 
demoralization of all just conceptions of public 
duty which it entails, stimulates a habit of reckless 
improvidence not in the least consistent with the 
mission of our people or the high and beneficent 
purpose of our Government. 

I have deemed it my duty to thus bring to the 
knowledge of my countrymen, as well as the 
attention of their representatives charged with 
the responsibility of legislative relief, the gravity 
of our financial situation. The failure of the 
Congress heretofore to provide against the dan- 
gers which it was quite evident the very nature 
of the difficulty must necessarily produce, caused 
a condition of financial distress and apprehension 
since your last adjournment, which taxed to the 
uttermost all the authority and expedients within 
executive control ; and these appear now to be 
exhausted. If disaster results from the continued 
inaction of Congress, the responsibility must rest 
where it belongs. 



A CHALLENGE AND LTS AXSWER, /[JC) 

Though the situation thus far considered is 
fraught with danger which should be fully realized, 
and though it presents features of wrong to the 
people as well as peril to the country, it is but 
a result growing out of a perfectly palpable and 
apparant cause, constantly reproducing the same 
alarming circumstances — a congested National 
Treasury and a depleted monetary condition in the 
business of the country. It need hardly be stated 
that while the present situation demands a remedy, 
we can only be saved from a like predicament in 
the future by the removal of its cause. 

Our scheme of taxation, by means of which 
this needless surplus is taken from the people 
and put into the public Treasury, consists of a 
tariff or duty levied upon importations from, 
abroad, and internal-revenue taxes levied upon 
the consumption of tobacco and spirituous and 
malt liquors. It must be conceded that none of 
the things subjected to internal-revenue taxation 
are, strictly speaking, necessaries ; there appears 
to be no just complaint of this taxation by the 
consumers of these articles, and there seems to 
be nothing so well able to bear the burden with- 
out hardship to any portion of the people. 

But our present tariff laws, the vicious, inequi- 
table, and illogical source of unnecessary taxation, 
ought to be at once revised and amended. These 
laws, as their primary and plain effect, raise the 
price to consumers of all articles imported and 



480 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

subject to duty, by. precisely the sum paid for 
such duties. Thus the amount of the duty meas- 
ures the tax paid by those who purchase for use 
these imported articles. Many of these things, 
however, are raised or manufactured in our own 
country, and the duties now levied upon foreign 
goods and products are called protection to these 
home manufactures, because they render it possi- 
ble for those of our people who are manufacturers 
to make these taxed articles and sell them for a 
price equal to that demanded for the imported 
goods that have paid customs duty. So it happens 
that while comparatively a few use the imported 
articles, millions of our people, who never use and 
never saw any of the foreign products, purchase 
and use thino-s of the same kind made in this coun- 
try, and pay therefor nearly or quite the same en- 
hanced price which the duty adds to the imported 
articles. Those who buy imports pay the duty 
charged^thereon into the public Treasury, but the 
majority of our citizens, w^ho buy domestic articles 
of the same class, pay a sum at least approx- 
imately equal to this duty to the home manufact- 
urer. This reference to the operation of our 
tariff laws is not made by way of instruction, but 
in order that we may be constantly reminded 
of the manner in which they impose a burden 
upon those who consume domestic products as 
well as those who consume imported articles, and 
thus create a tax upon all our people. 



A CHALLENGE AND LTS ANSWER. 48 1 



It is not proposed to entirely relieve the coun- 
try of this taxation. It must be extensively con- 
tinued as the source of the Government's incom^e; 
and in a readjustmxent of our tariff the interests of 
American labor engaged in manufacture should 
be carefully considered, as well as the preserva- 
tion of our manufactures. It may be called pro- 
tection, or by any other name, but relief from the 
hardships and dangers of our present tariff laws, 
should be devised with especial precaution against 
imperilling the existence of our m.anufacturing 
interests. But this existence should not mean a 
condition which, without regard to the public wel- 
fare or a national exigency, must always insure 
the realization of im^mense profits instead of mod- 
erately profitable returns. As the volume and 
diversity of our national activities increase, new 
recruits are added to those who desire a continua- 
tion of the advantages which they conceive the 
present system of tariff taxation directly affords 
them. So stubbornly have all efforts to reform 
the present condition been resisted by those of 
our fellow-citizens thus engaged, that they can 
hardly complain of the suspicion, entertained to a 
certain extent, that there existed an organized 
combination all along the line to maintain their 
advantage. 

We are in the midst of centennial celebrations 
and vvith becoming pride we rejoice in American 
skill and ingenuity, in American energy and 



482 JAMES G, BLAINE, 

enterprise, and in the wonderful natural advantages 
and resources developed by a century's national 
growth. Yet when an attempt is made to justify a 
scheme which permits a tax to be laid upon every 
consumer in the land for the benefit of our manu- 
facturers, quite beyond a reasonable demand for 
government regard, it suits the purposes of advo- 
cacy to call our manufactures infant industries, 
still needing the highest and greatest degree of 
favor and fostering care that can be wrung from 
Federal legislation. 

It is also said that the increase in the price of 
domestic manufactures resulting from the present 
tariff is necessary in order that higher wages may 
bepaid to our working men employed in manufacto- 
ries, than are paid for what is called the pauper 
labor of Europe. All will acknowledge the force 
of an argument which involves the welfare and 
liberal compensation of our laboring people. Our 
labor is honorable in the eyes of every American 
citizen ; and as it lies at the foundation of our 
development and progress, it is entitled, without 
affectation or hypocrisy, to the utmost regard. 
The standard of our laborers' life should not be 
measured by that of any other country less fav- 
ored, and they are entitled to their full share of all 
our advantao^-es. 

By the last census it is made to appear that of 
the 17,392,099 of our population engaged in all 
kinds of industries, 7,670,493 are employed in 



A CHALLENGE AXD ITS AXSWER. 483 

agriculture, 4,074,238 in professional and personal 
service (2,934,876 of whom are domestic servants 
and laborers), while 1,810,256 are employed in 
trade and transportation, and 3,837,112 are classed 
as employed in manufacturing and mining. 

For present purposes, how^ever, the last number 
given should be considerably reduced. Without 
attempting to enumerate all, it will be conceded 
that there should not be deducted from these 
which it includes, 375,143 carpenters and joiners, 
285,401 milliners, dressmakers and seamstresses, 
172,72^ blacksmiths, 133,756 tailors and tailor- 
esses, 102,473 masons, 76,241 butchers, 41,- 
309 bakers, 22,083 plasterers, and 4,891 en- 
gaged in manufacturing agricultural implements, 
amounting in the aggregate to 1,214,023, leaving 
2,623,089 persons employed in such manufactur- 
ing industries as are claimed to be benefited by a 
high tariff 

To these the appeal is made to save their em- 
ployment and maintain their wages by resisting a 
change. There should be no disposition to an- 
swer such suggestions by the allegation that they 
are in a minority among those who labor, and 
therefore should forego an advantage, in the in- 
terest of low^ prices for the majority ; their com- 
pensation, as it may be affected by the operation 
of tariff lavv^s, should at all times be scrupulously 
kept in view ; and yet with slight reflection they 
will not overlook the fact that they are consumers 



484 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

With the rest ; that they, too, have their own wants 
and those of their families to supply from their 
earnings, and that the price of the necessaries of 
life, as well as the amount of their wages, will 
regulate the measure of their welfare and comfort. 

But the reduction of taxation demanded should 
be so measured as not to necessitate or justify 
either the loss of employment by the working m.an 
or the lessening of his wages ; and the profits 
still remaining to the manufacturer, after a neces- 
sary readjustment, should furnish no excuse for 
the sacrifice of the interests of his employees 
either in their opportunity to work or in the dimi- 
nution of their compensation. Nor can the worker 
in manufactures fail to understand that while 
a high tariff is claimed to be necessary to allow the 
payment of remunerative wages, it certainly re- 
• suits in a very large increase in the price of near- 
ly all sorts of manufactures, which, in almost 
countless forms, he needs for the use of him.self 
and his family. He receives at the desk of his em- 
ployer his wages, and perhaps before he reaches 
his home is obliged, in a purchase for family use 
of an article which embraces his own labor, to re- 
turn in the payment of the increase in price 
which the tariff permits, the hard-earned compen- 
sation of many days of toil. 

The farmer and the agriculturist, who manufact- 
ure nothing, but who pay the increased price which 
the tariff imposes upon every agricultural 



A CHALLENGE AND LTS ANSWER, 485 

implement, upon all he wears, and upon all he uses 
and owns except the increase of his flocks and 
herds and such things as his husbandry produces 
from the soil, is invited to aid in maintaining the 
present situation; and he is told that a high duty on 
imported wool is necessary for the benefit of those 
who have sheep to shear, in order that the price 
of their wool may be increased. They, of course, 
are not reminded that the farmer who has no 
sheep is by this scheme obliged, in his purchases 
of clothing and woolen goods, to pay a tribute to 
his fellow-farmer as well as to the manufacturer 
and merchant ; nor is any mention made of the 
fact that the sheep-owners themselves and their 
households must wear clothing and use other ar- 
ticles manufactured from the wool they sell at 
tariff prices, and thus, as consumers, must return 
their share this increased price to the trades- 
man. 

I think it may be fairly assumed that a large 
proportion of the sheep owned by the farmers 
throughout the country are found in small flocks 
numbering from twenty-five to fifty. The duty 
on the grade of imported wool which these 
sheep yield, is ten cents each pound if of the 
value of thirty cents or less, and twelve cents if 
of the value of more than thirty cents. If the 
liberal estimate of six pounds be allowed for each 
fleece, the duty thereon would be sixty or seventy- 
two cents, and this may be taken as the utmost 



^86 JAMES G. BLAIXE. 

enhancement of its price to the farmer by reason 
of this duty. Eighteen dollars would thus repre- 
sent the increased price of the wool from twenty- 
five sheep, and thirty-six dollars that frorn the wool 
of fifty sheep ; and at present values this addition 
would amount to about one-third of its price If 
upon its sale the farmer receives this or a less 
tariff profit, the wool leaves his hands charged 
with precisely that sum, which in all its changes 
will adhere to it, until it reaches the consumer. 
When manufactured into cloth and other eoods 
and material for use, its cost is not only increased 
to the extent of the farmer's tariff profit, but a 
further sum has been added for the benefit of the 
manufacturer under the operation of other tariff 
laws. In the meantime the dav arrives when the 
farmer finds it necessar}' to purchase woolen goods 
and material to clothe himself and family for the 
winter. When he faces the tradesman for that 
purpose he discovers that he is obliged not only 
to return, in the way of increased prices, his tariff 
profit on the wool he sold, and which then, per- 
haps, lies before him in manufactured form, but 
that he must add a considerable sum thereto to 
meet a further increase in cost caused by a tariff 
duty on the manufacture. Thus in the end he is 
aroused to the fact that he has paid upon a moder- 
ate purchase, as a result of the tariff scheme, 
which when he sold his wool seemed so profitable, 
an increase in price more than sufficient to sweep 



i 



A CHALLENGE AXD ITS AXSWER. 489 

away all the tariff profit he received upon the 
wool he produced and sold. 

When the number of farmers engaged in wool- 
raising is compared with all the farmers in the 
country, and the small proportion they bear to 
our population is considered ; when it is made 
^apparent that, in the case of a large part of those 
who own sheep, the benefit of the present tariff 
on wool is illusory ; and, above all, when it m.ust 
be conceded that the increase of the cost of living 
caused by such tariff becomes a burden upon those 
with moderate means, and the poor, the employed 
and unemployed, the sick and v/ell, and the young 
and old, and that it constitutes a tax which, v/ith 
relentless grasp, is fastened upon the clothing of 
everv man, woman and child in the land, reasons 
are suggested why the removal or reduction of 
this dutv should be included in a revision of our 
tariff laws. 

In speaking of the increased cost to the con- 
sumer of our home manufactures, resulting from 
a duty laid upon imported articles of the same 
description, the fact is not overlooked that com- 
petition among our domestic producers sometimes 
has the effect of keeping the price of their pro- 
ducts below the highest limit allowed by such duty. 
But it is notorious that this competition is too 
often strangled by combinations quite prevalent 
at this time, and frequently called trusts, which 
have for their object the regulation of the supply 
28 



490 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



and price of commodities made and sold by mem- 
bers of the combination. The people can hardly 
hope for any consideration in the operation of 
these selfish schemes. 

If, however, in the absence of such combination, 
a healthy and free competition reduces the price 
of any particular dutiable article of home produc- 
tion below the limit which it might otherwise 
reach under our tariff laws, and if, with such 
reduced price, its manufacture continues to thrive, 
it is entirely evident that one thing has been dis- 
covered which should be carefully scrutinized in 
an effort to reduce taxation. 

The necessity of combination to maintain the 
price of any commodity to the tariff point furnishes 
proof that some one is willing to accept lower 
prices for such commodity, and that such prices 
are remunerative ; and lower prices produced by 
competition prove the same thing. Thus where 
either of these conditions exists, a case would seem 
to be presented for an easy reduction of taxation. 

The considerations which have been presented 
touching our tariff laws are intended only to en- 
force an earnest recommendation that the surplus 
revenues of the Government be prevented by the 
reduction of our custom duties, and at the same 
time to emphasize a suggestion that, in accom- 
plishing this purpose, we may discharge a double 
duty to our people by granting to them a measure 
of relief from tariff taxation in quarters where it 



A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 491 



is most needed and from sources where it can be 
most fairly and justly accorded. 

Nor can the presentation made of such consid- 
erations be, with any degree of fairness, regarded 
as evidence of unfriendliness toward our manu- 
facturing interests, or of any lack of appreciation 
of their value and importance. 

These interests constitute a leading and most 
substantial element of our national greatness and 
furnish the proud proof of o.ur country's progress. 
But if in the emergency that presses upon us our 
manufacturers are asked to surrender somxething 
for the public good and to avert disaster, their 
patriotism, as well as a grateful recognition of 
advantages already afforded, should lead them to 
willing co-operation. No demand is made that 
they shall forego all the benefits of governmental 
regard ; but they cannot fail to be admonished of 
their duty, as well as their enlightened self-interest 
and safety, v/hen they are reminded of the fact 
that financial panic and collapse, to which the 
present condition tends, affords no greater shelter 
or protection to our manufactures than to our 
other important enterprises. Opportunity for 
safe, careful and deliberate reform is now offered ; 
and none of us should be unmindful of a time 
Vv^hen an abused. and irritated people, heedless of 
those who have resisted timely and reasonable 
belief, m.ay insist upon a radical and sweeping 
rectification of their wrongs. 



492 JAMES G. BLAIXE, 

The difficulty attending a wise and fair revision 
of our tariff laws is not underestimated. It will 
require on the part of the Congress great labor 
and care, and especially a broad and national 
contemplation of the subject, and a patriotic 
disregard of such local and selfish claims as are 
unreasonable and reckless of the welfare of the 
entire country. 

Under our present laws more than four thousand 
articles are subject to duty. Many of these do 
not in ally way compete with our own manufact- 
ures, and many are hardly worth attention as 
subjects of revenue. A considerable reduction 
can be made in the ag^e^'e^a'te, bv addino" them to 
the free list. The taxation of luxuries presents 
no features of hardship : but the necessaries of 
life used and consumed by all the people, the 
duty upon Vv'hich adds to the cost of living in ever}' 
home, should be greatly cheapened. 

The radical reduction of the duties imposed 
upon raw material used in manufactures, or its 
free importation, is, of course, an important factor 
in any effort to reduce the price of these neces- 
saries ; it would not only relieve them from the 
increased cost caused by the tariff on such mate- 
rial but the mianufactured product being thus 
cheapened, that part of the tariff now laid upon 
such product as a compensation to our manufact- 
urers for the present price of ravr material, could 
be according-lv m.odihed. Such reduction, or free 



A CHALLENGE AND LTS ANSWER. 493 

importation, would serve beside to largely reduce 
the revenue. It is not apparent how such a 
change can have any injurious effect upon our 
manufacturers. On the contrary, it would ap- 
pear to give them a better chance in foreign mar- 
kets with the manufacturers of other countries, 
who cheapen their wares by free material. Thus 
our people might have an opportunity of extend- 
ing their sales beyond the limits of home con- 
sumption — saving them from the depression, in- 
terruption in business, and loss caused by a 
glutted domestic market, and affording their em- 
ployees more certain and steady labor, with its 
resulting quiet and contentment. 

The question thus imperatively presented for 
solution should be approached in a spirit higher 
than partisanship, and considered in the light of 
that regard for patriotic duty which should char- 
acterize the action of those intrusted with the 
weal of a confiding people. But the obligation 
to declared party policy and principle is not want- 
ing to urge prompt and effective action. Both of 
the great political parties now represented in the 
Government have, by repeated and authoritative 
declarations, condemned the condition of our laws 
which permit the collection from the people of 
unnecessary revenue, and have, in the most solemn 
manner, promised its correction ; and neither as citi- 
zens nor partisans are our countrymen in a mood to 
condone the deliberate violation of these pledges. 



JAMES G, BLAINE. 

Our progress toward a wise conclusion v/ill not 
be improved by dwelling upon the theories of 
protection and free trade. This savors too much 
of bandying epithets. It is a co7tdUio7i which con- 
fronts us — not a theory. Relief from this condi- 
tion m.ay involve a slight reduction of the advan- 
tages which we award our home productions, but 
the entire withdrawal of such advantages should 
not be contemplated. The question of free trade 
is absolutely irrelevant ; and the persistent claim 
made in certain quarters, that all efforts to relieve 
the people from unjust and unnecessary taxation 
are schemes of so-called free-traders, is mischiev- 
ous and far removed from any consideration for 
the public good. . 

The simple and plain duty which we owe the 
people is to reduce taxation to the necessary ex- 
penses of an economical operation of the Gov- 
ernment, and to restore to the business of the 
country the money which we hold in the Treasury 
through the perversion of governmental powers. 
These things can and should be done with safety 
to all our industries, without danger to the op- 
portunity for remunerative labor which our work- 
ing men need, and with benefit to them and all our 
people, by cheapening their means of subsistence 
and increasing the measure of their comforts. 

The Constitution provides that the President 

shall, from time to time, give to the Congress 
information of the state of the Union.'* It has 



A CHALLENGE AND LTS ANSWER. 



been the custom of the Executive, in compliance 
with this provision, to annually exhibit to the 
Congress, at the opening of its session, the gen- 
eral condition of the country, and to detail, with 
some particularity, the operations of the different 
Executive Departments. It would be especially 
agreeable to follow this course at the present time, 
and to call attention to the valuable accomplish- 
ments of these Departments during the last fiscal 
year. But I am so much impressed with the 
paramount importance of the subject to which this 
communication has thus far been devoted, that I 
shall forego the addition of any other topic, and 
only urge, upon your immediate consideration the 
state of the Union'' as shown in the present 
condition of our Treasury and our general fiscal 
situation, upon which every element of our safety 
and prosperity depends. 

The reports of the heads of Departments, 
which will be submitted, contain full and explicit 
information touching the transaction of the busi- 
ness intrusted to them, and such recommendations 
relating to legislation in the public interest as 
they deem advisable. I ask for these reports and 
recommendations the deliberate examination and 
action of the Legislative branch of the Govern- 
ment. 

There are other subjects not embraced in the 
departmental reports demanding legislative con- 
sideration and which I should be glad to submit. 



496 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

Some of them, however, have been earnestly pre- 
sented in previous messages, and as to them, I 
beg leave to repeat prior recommendations. 

As the law makes no provision for any report 
from the Department of State, a brief history of 
the transactions of that important Department, 
together with other matters which it may hereafter 
be deemed essential to commend to the attention 
of the Congress, may furnish the occasion for a 
future communication. 

GROVER CLEVELAND. 

W^ASHINGTON, December 6, 1887. 

The effect of this message was instantaneous 
and tremendous. Seldom has any American 
public document in time of peace produced such 
a sensation. It w^as regarded as expressing the 
principles on which Mr. Cleveland would appeal 
to the country for re-election to the Presidency, 
and on which the financial leo^islation of the Con- 
gress during that session would be based. As 
for the Republicans, they greeted it with satisfac- 
tion, for the tariff w^as the very issue on w^hich 
they were most anxious to fight the next cam- 
paign. 

It was necessary that some conspicuous Re- 
publican leader should, however, mxake immediate 
and effective answer to Mr. Cleveland's impres- 
sive utterances. The foremost leader of the party 
was unquestionably Mr. Blaine. He was, more- 
over, in an especial sense the proper man to 



A CHALLENGE AND LTS ANSWER. 



497 



make answer to Mr. Cleveland, as he had been 
his rival in the Presidential campaign of 1884. Mn 
Blaine was at the time in Paris. But distance did 
not prevent him from promptly accepting Mr. 
Cleveland's challenge and making his answer 
thereto, both personally and as the leader and 
spokesman of the RepubHcan party. 

A very complete abstract of the President's 
message was, of course, immediately transmitted 
by cable to Europe and published in all important 
papers there. That was on the morning of De- 
cember 7th, the message having been presented to 
Congress at Washington on the afternoon of 
December 6th. On the very day of its publication 
in Europe, Mr. George W. Smalley, the well- 
known London correspondent of TAe New York 
Tribu7ie, called on Mr. Blaine in Paris and asked 
him if he would be willing to give his views of the 
President's Message for publication, in the form 
of a letter or an interview. Mr. Blaine replied 
in the affirmative, saying that he would prefer an 
interview. Accordingly an expert stenographer 
was called in to take down Mr. Blaine's words as 
he should reply to the various questions of the 
correspondent. Mr. Blaine began by saying : 

I have been reading an abstract of the Presi- 
dent's message and have been especially interested 
in the comments of the London papers. Those 
papers all assume to declare the message is a free 
trade manifesto and evidently are anticipating an 



498 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

enlarged market for English fabrics in the United 
States as a consequence of the President's recom- 
mendations. Perhaps that fact stamped the char- 
acter of the message more clearly than any words 
of mine can." 

You don't mean actual free trade without 
duty?'' queried the reporter. 

" No.'' replied Mr. Blaine. Nor do the Lon- 
don papers mean that. They simply mean that 
the President has recommended what in the 
United States is known as a revenue tariff, re- 
jecting the protective feature as an object and not 
even permitting protection to result freely as an 
incident to revenue duties. I mean, that for the 
first time in the history of the United States the 
President recommends retaining the internal 
tax in order that the tariff may be forced down 
even below the fair revenue standard. He rec- 
ommends that the tax on tobacco be retained, 
and thus that many millions annually shall be 
levied on a domestic product which would far 
better come from a tariff on foreign fabrics." 

Then do you mean to imply that you would 
favor the repeal of the tobacco tax ?" 

Certainly ; I mean just that," said Mr. Blaine. 

should urge that '11 be done at once, even 
before the Christmas holidays. It would in the 
first place bring great relief to growers of tobacco 
all over the country, and would, moreover, mate- 
rially lessen the price of the article to consumers. 



A CHALLENGE AND LTS ANSWER, ^gg 

Tobacco to millions of men is a necessity. The 
President calls it a luxury, but it is a luxury in no 
other sense than tea and coffee are luxuries. It 
is well to remember that the luxury of yesterday 
becomes a necessity of to-day. Watch, if you 
please, the number of men at work on the farm, 
in the coal-mine, along the railroad, in the iron 
foundry, or in any calling, and you will find 95 in 
100 chewing while they work. After each meal 
the same proportion seek the solace of a pipe or 
a cigar. These men not only pay the millions of 
the tobacco tax, but pay on every plug and every 
cigar an enhanced price which the tax enables the 
manufacturer and retailer to impose. The only 
excuse for such a tax is the actual necessity under 
which the Government found itself during the 
war, and the years immediately following. To 
retain the tax now in order to destroy the protec- 
tion which would incidentally flow from raising 
the same amount of money on foreign imports is 
certainly a most extraordinary policy for our Gov- 
ernment." 

Well, then, Mr. Blaine, would you advise the 
repeal of the whiskey tax also ? 

No, I would not. Other considerations than 
those of financial administration are to be taken 
into accoun:t with regard to whiskey. There is 
a moral side to it. To cheapen the price of 
whiskey is to increase its consumption enor- 
mously. There would be no sense in urging the 



5O0 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

reform wrought by high license in many States 
if the National Government neutralizes the eood 
effect by making whiskey within reach of every 
one at twenty cents a gallon. Whiskey would 
be everywhere distilled if the surveillance of the 
Government were withdrawn by the remission of 
the tax, and illicit sales could not then be pre- 
vented even by a policy as rigorous and searching 
as that with which Russia pursues the Nihilists. 
It would destroy high license at once in all the 
States. 

Whiskey has done a vast deal of harm in the 
United States. I would try to make it do some 
o;ood. I would use the tax to fortifv our cities 
on the seaboard. In view of the powerful letter 
addressed to the Democratic party on the subject 
of fortifications by the late ]\Ir. Samuel J. Tilden 
in 1885, I am amazed that no attention has been 
paid to the subject by the Democratic Administra- 
tion. Never before in the history of the world 
has any government allowed great cities on the 
seaboard, like New York, Philadelphia, Boston, 
Baltimore, New Orleans and San Francisco, to 
remain absolutely defenceless." 

''But," said the reporter, ''you don't think we 
are to have war in any direction ? " 

'' Certainly not," said !Mr. Blaine. " Neither, I 
presume, did Mn Tilden Vvhen he wrote his re- 
markable letter. But we should chano^e a remote 
chance into an absolute impossibility. If our 



A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER, 50 1 

weak and exposed points were strongly fortified, 
if to-day we had by any chance even such a war 
as we had with Mexico, our enemy could procure 
ironclads in Europe that would menace our great 
cities with destruction or lay them under contri- 
bution/' 

*'But would not our fortifying now possibly 
look as if we expected war ? 

''Why should it any more than the fortifica- 
tions made seventy or eighty years ago by our 
grandfathers when they guarded themselves 
against successful attack from the armaments of 
that day? We don't necessarily expect a burglar 
because we lock our doors at night, but if by any 
possibility a burglar comes it contributes vastly to 
our peace of mind and our sound sleep to feel 
that he can't get in." 

''But after the fortifications should be con- 
structed would you still maintain the tax on 
whiskey ? " 

"Yes," said Mr. Blaine, "so long as there is 
whiskey to tax I would tax it, and when the 
Natipnal Government should have no use for the 
money I would divide the tax among the mem- 
bers of the Federal Union with the specific object 
of lightening- the tax on real estate. The houses 
and farms of the whole country pay too large a 
proportion of the total taxes. If ultimately relief 
could be given in that direction it would, in my 
judgment, be a wise and beneficent policy. Some 



JAMES G. BLAIXE. 

honest but misguided friends of temperance have 
urged that the Government should not use the 
money derived from the tax on whiskey. My 
reply is that the tax on whiskey by the Federal 
Government, with its suppression of all illicit dis- 
tillation and consequent enhancement of price, 
has been a powerful agent in the temperance 
reform by putting it beyond the reach of so many. 
The amount of whiskey consumed in the United 
States per capita to-day is not more than forty 
per cent, of that consumed thirty years ago." 

After a few moments' silence Mr. Blaine added 
that in his judgment the whiskey tax should be so 
modified as to permit all who use pure alcohol in 
the arts or in mechanical pursuits to have it free of 
tax. In all such cases the tax could be remitted 
without danger of fraud, just as now the tax on 
spirits exported is remitted. 

Besides your general and sweeping opposition 
to the President's recommendation have vou anv 
further specific objection 

''Yes/' answered !\Ir. Blaine ; I should seri- 
ously object to the repeal of the duty on wool. 
To repeal that would work great injustice to many 
interests and would seriouslv dlscouracre what we 
should earnestly encourage, namely, the sheep cult- 
ure amono- farmers throuo-hout the Union. To 
break down wool-growing and be dependent on 
foreign countries for the blanket under which we 
sleep and the coat that covers our backs is not 



A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER, 503 

a wise policy for the National Government to 
enforce." 

''Do you think if the President's recommendation 
were adopted it would increase our export trade 

*' Possibly in some few articles of peculiar con- 
struction it^might, but it would increase our 
import trade ten-fold as much in the great staple 
fabrics, in woolen and cotton goods, in iron, in 
steel, in all the thousand and one shapes in which 
they are wrought. How are we to export staple 
fabrics to the markets of Europe unless we make 
them cheaper than they do in Europe, and how 
are we to manufacture them cheaper than they do 
in Europe unless we get cheaper labor than they 
have in Europe ? '' 

''Then you think that the question of labor 
underlies the whole subject?'' 

"Of course it does," replied Mr. Blaine. "It 
is, in fact, the entire question. Whenever we 
can force carpenters, masons, ironworkers and 
mechanics in every department to work as cheaply 
and live as poorly in the United States as similar 
workmen in Europe, we can, of course, manufact- 
ure just as cheaply as they do in England and 
France. But I am totally opposed to a policy 
that would entail such results. To attempt it is 
equivalent to a social and financial revolution, one 
that would bring untold distress." 

"Yes, but might not the great farming class be 
benefited by importing articles from Europe, 



^04 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

instead of buying them at higher prices at 
home?^' 

''The moment/' answered Mr. Blaine, ''you 
begin to import freely from Europe you drive our 
own workmen from mechanical and manufacturing 
pursuits. In the same proportion they become til- 
lers of the soil, increasing steadily the agricultural 
product and decreasing steadily the large home de- 
mand, vv^hich is constantly enlarging as home man- 
ufactures enlarge. That, of course, works great 
injury to the farmer, glutting the market with his 
products and tending constantly to lower prices.'' 

"Yes, but the foreign demand for farm products 
would be increased in like ratio, would it not?" 

"Even suppose it were," said Mr. Blaine, "how 
do you know the source from which it will be 
supplied? The tendency in Russia to-day and in 
the Asiatic possessions of England is toward a 
large increase of the grain supply, the grain being 
raised by the cheapest possible labor. Manufact- 
uring countries will buy their breadstuffs where 
they can get them cheapest, and the enlarging of 
the home market for the American farmer being 
checked he would search in vain for one of the 
same value. His foreign sales are already 
checked by the great competition abroad. There 
never was a time when the increase of a large 
home market was so valuable to him. The best 
proof is that the farmers are prosperous in pro- 
portion to the nearness of manufacturing centres, 



BENJAMIN HARRISON. 



A CHALLENGE AND LTS ANSWER. 507 

and a protective tariff tends to spread manufact- 
ures. In Ohio and Indiana, for example, though 
not classed as manufacturing States, the annual 
value of fabrics is larger than the annual value of 
agricultural products." 

''But those holding the President's views," re- 
marked the reporter, * are always quoting the 
great prosperity of the country under the tariff 
of 1846." 

'*That tariff did not involve the one destructive 
point recommended by the President, namely, the 
retaining of direct internal taxes in order to abol- 
ish indirect taxes levied on forei£{n fabrics. But 
the country had peculiar advantages under it by 
the Crimean war, involving England, France and 
Russia, and largely impairing their trade. All 
these incidents, or accidents, if you choose, were 
immensely stimulating to trade in the United 
States, regardless of the nature of our tariff. 
But mark the end of this European experience 
w^ith the tariff of 1846, which for a time gave an 
illusory and deceptive show^ of prosperity. Its 
enactment was immediately followed by the Mex- 
ican war ; then in 1848 by the great convulsions 
of Europe ; then in 1 849 and succeeding years 
by the enormous gold yield in California. The 
Powers made peace in 1 85 6, and at the same 
^ time the output of gold in California fell off. Im- 
mediately the financial panic of 1857 came upon 

the country with disastrous force. Though we 
29 



-Qg JAMES C BL.-.jWE, 

had in these years mined a \ ast amount of gold 
in Cahfornia, even' bank in Xew York was com- 
palled to suspend specie payment. Four hundred 
millions in gold had been carried out of the coun- 
try in eight }'ears to pay for foreign goods that 
should have been manufactured at home, and we 
had years of depression and distress as an atone- 
ment for our folly. 

*' It is remarkable that President Polk recom- 
mended the tariff of 1846 on precisely the same 
ground that President Cleveland recommends a 
similar enactment now, namely, the surphis in the 
Treasury vv^as menacing the prosperity of the coun- 
trv. Historv is repeating itself. Bv the way," 
Mr. Blaine added, after a moment's reflection, 'dt 
is VN'orth notice that Mr. Polk insisted on emptying 
the Treasury by a free-trade tariff, then immedi- 
ately rushed the country into debt by borrowing 
$150,000,000 for the Mexican war. I trust noth- 
ing may occur to repeat so disastrous a sequel to 
the policy recomm.ended by President Cleveland. 
But the uniform fate has been for fifty years past 
that the Democratic party when it goes out of 
power always leaves an empty Treasury, and when 
it returns to power abva^'s finds a full Treasury." 

Then do you mean to imply that there should 
be no reduction of the Xarional revenue ? " 

No, what I have said implies the reverse. I 
would reduce it by a prompt repeal of the tobacco 
tax and would make here and there some changes 



A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER. 509 

in the tariff not to reduce protection, but wisely 
foster it. No great system of revenue like our 
tariff can operate with efficiency and equity unless 
the changes of trade be closely watched and the 
law promptly adapted to those changes. But I 
would make no change that should impair the 
protective character of the whole body of the 
tariff laws. Four years ago, in the Act of 1883, 
w^e made chang-es of the character I have tried to 
indicate. If such changes were made, and the 
fortifying of our seacoast thus undertaken at a 
very moderate annual outlay, no surplus would 
be found after that already accumulated had been 
disposed of. The outlay of money on fortifica- 
tions, while doing great service to the coiintr\% 
would give good work to many men.'* 
But what about the existing surplus 1 
The abstract of the message I have seen," 
replied Mr. Blaine, 'contains no reference to that 
point. I, therefore, make no comment further 
than to endorse Mr. Fred Grant's remark that a 
surplus is always easier to handle than a deficit." 

The reporter repeated the question whether the 
President's recommendation would not, if adopted, 
give us the advantage of a large increase in exports. 

I only repeat," answered Mr. Blaine, that it 
would vastly enlarge our imports, while the only 
export it would seriously increase would be our 
gold and silver. That would flow out bounteously 
just as it did under the tariff of 1846. The 



JAMES G, BLAIXE. 



President's recommendation enacted into law 
would result as did an experiment in drainage of 
a man who wished to turn a swamp into a pro- 
ductive field. He dug a drain to a neighboring 
river, but it happened, unfortunately, that the 
level of the river was higher than the level of the 
svvamp. The consequence need not be told. A 
parallel would be found when the President's 
policy in attempting to open a channel for an in= 
crease of exports should simply succeed in mak- 
ing w^ay for a deluging inflow of fabrics to the 
destruction of home industry." 

''But don't yoM think it important to increase 
our export trade ? '' 

Undoubtedly ; but it is vastly more important 
not to lose our own great market for our own 
people in the vain effort to reach the impossible. 
It is not our foreign trade that has caused the 
wonderful growth and expansion of the republic. 
It is the vast domestic trade between thirty-eight 
States and eight Territories, with their population 
of, perhaps, 62,000,000 to-day. The whole 
amount of our export and import trade together 
has never, I think, reached ^1,900,000,000 any 
one year. Our internal home trade on 130,000 
miles of railway, along 1 5,000 miles of ocean coast, 
over the five great lakes and along 20,000 miles 
of navigable rivers, reaches the enormous annual 
aggregate of more than $40,000,000,000, and 
perhaps this year $50,000,000,000. 



A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER, 5 1 1 

It is into this illimitable trade, even now in its 
infancy and destined to attain a magnitude not 
dreamed of twenty years ago, that the Europeans 
are struggling to enter. It is the heritage of the 
American people, of their children and of their 
children's children. It gives an absolutely free 
trade over a territory nearly as large as all Europe, 
and the profit is all our own. The genuine Free- 
Trader appears unable to see or comprehend that 
this continental trade — not our exchanges with 
Europe — is the great source of our prosperity. 
President Cleveland now plainly proposes a policy 
that will admit Europe to a share of this trade.'' 

But you are in favor of extending our foreign 
trade, are you not ?" 

Certainly I am, in all practical and advanta- ^ 
geous ways, but not on the principle of the Free- 
Traders, by which we shall be constantly exchang- 
ing dollar for dime. Moreover, the foreign trad@ 
is often very delusive. Cotton is manufactured 
in the city of my residence. If a box of cotton 
goods is sent 200 miles to the province of New- 
Brunswick, it is foreign trade. If shipped 17,000 
miles round Cape Horn to Washington Territory, 
it is domestic trade. The magnitude of the Union 
and the immensity of its internal trade require a 
new political economy. The treatises written for E<u- 
ropean States do not grasp our peculiar situation.'* 

How will the President's message be taken in 
the South ?" I don't dare to answer that question. 



512 JAMES G. BLAjW 

The truth has been so long obscured by 
certain local questions of unreasoning prejudice 
that nobody can hope for industrial enlightenment 
among their leaders just yet. But in my view 
the South above all sections of the Union needs a 
protective tariff. The two Virginias, North 
Carolina, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Ala- 
bama and Georgia have enormous resources and 
facilities for developing and handling manufact- 
ures. They cannot do anything without protec- 
tion. Even progress so vast as some of those 
States have made will be checked if the Presi- 
dent's messaofe is enacted into law. Their Sena- 
tors and Representatives can prevent it, but they 
are so used to followina- anvthinof labelled 'Demo- 
cratic ' that very probably they will follow the 
President and blight the progress already made. 
By the time some of the Southern States get free 
iron ore and coal, while tobacco is taxed, thev mav 
have occasion to sit down and calculate the value 
of Democratic free trade to their local interests.'' 
•'Will not the President's recommendation to 
admit raw material find strong support? '' 

Not by wise Protectionists in our time. Per- 
haps some greedy manufacturers may think that 
with free coal or free iron ore thev can do ei'eat 
things, but if they should succeed in trying, will, 
as the boys say, catch it on the rebound. If the 
home trade in raw material is destroyed or seri- 
ously injured railroads \\\\\ be the first to feel it. 



A CHALLENGE AND ITS ANSWER, 513 

If that vast interest is crippled in any direction 
the financial fabric of the whole country will feel 
it quickly and seriously. If any man can give a rea- 
son why we should arrange the tariff to favor the 
raw material of other countries in a competition 
against our material of the same kind, I should 
like to hear it. Should that recommendation of 
the President be approved it would turn 100,000 
American laborers out of employment before it 
had been a year in operation." 

*'What must be the marked and general effect 
of the President's message?'' 

''It will bring the country where it ought to be 
brought — to a full and fair contest on the question 
of protection. The President himself makes it 
the one issue by presenting no other in his mes- 
sage. I think it well to have the Question settled. 
The Democratic party in power is a standing men- 
ace to the industrial prosperity of the country. 
That menace should be removed or the policy it 
foreshadows should be made certain. Nothing is 
so mischievous to business as uncertainty, nothing 
so paralyzing as doubt.'' 

This interview was published in New York on 
December 8th, the very day after the publication of 
President Cleveland's message. The Republican 
party hailed it with delight, as a most effective 
reply to the Democratic pronunciamento ; and on 
that date the issues were joined and the Presiden- 
tial campaign of 1888 was begun. 



CHAPTER XVIL 



AMERICAN DIPLOMACY. 

The Convention of 1888 — Mr. Blame's Work in the Campaign — The 
Harrison Administration— Mr. Blaine's Second Term as Secretary of 
State — The Samoan Affair — Extradition — The Pan-American Con- 
ference—Reciprocity and Its Results — American Pork in European 
Markets — The Fisheries — Bering Sea — Controversies with Chili and 
with Italy — A Notable Chapter in American Diplomacy. 

As the time for holding the National Republi- 
can Convention of 1888 drew near, the great 
mass of that party looked to Mr. Blaine as certain 
to be the chosen candidate. He was absent from 
the country, and, far from making any efforts to 
secure the nomination, was understood to be 
reluctant to receive it. But his friends would 
take no denial. Repeated reverses had only 
intensified their determination to put him in the 
Presidential chair. And since Mr. Cleveland was 
to be the Democratic candidate, on the platform 
indicated by his message of 1887, it seemed 
eminently fitting that Mr. Blaine, who had made 
such an eft'ective reply to that message, should 
be selected to oppose him. 

Mr. Cleveland was promptly nominated for 
a second term by the Democratic National Con- 
vention which met at St. Louis on June 5th. At 
the same time news came from Oregon that the 
514 



AMERICAN DIPLOMACY. 



election in that State had resulted in an over- 
whelming Republican victory. The tarifif had 
been the issue in the contest and Mr. Cleveland's 
free trade doctrines had been squarely repudiated. 
This was a happy omen for the Republicans, and 
when their Convention met at Chicago, on June 
19th, they were in high spirits and confident of 
victory at the polls in November. i\ll was uncer- 
tainty as to their standard-bearer, however. Mr. 
Blaine had written from Florence, Italy, some 
months before, explicitly declaring that he was not 
a candidate. Yet many of his followers w^ere deter- 
mined to bring his name before the Convention. 
There were also strong movements In favor of 
other candidates, such as the Hon. Chauncey M. 
Depew, of New York ; the Hon. John Sherman, 
of Ohio; the Hon. Benjamin Harrison, of Indiana; 
the Hon. Walter Q, Gresham, of Illinois; and 
the Hon. Russel A. Alger, of Michigan. It was 
commonly felt, however, that the choice of the 
Convention would ultimately be decided by the 
vote of New York. Not only was the delegation 
from that State the most numerous, but it was 
recognized that its preference should have 
especial weight since New York was a doubtful 
and pivotal State, upon whose vote the result of 
the election would probably depend. 

The platform adopted was strongly protectionist 
in tenor, and it also contained ringing utterances 
on the question of free and honest elections. 



5l6 JAMES G, BLAINE. 

During the organization of the Convention and 
adoption of platform, Avhich occupied two days, 
Mr. Blaine's name was cheered to the echo 
whenever it was mentioned, and the idea that he 
w^ould be nominated in spite of himself steadily 
grew. When the various candidates were formally 
placed before the Convention, however, he was 
not among them. They w'ere Messrs. Hawley, 
Gresham, Harrison, Alger, Allison, Depew^ Sher- 
man, Fitler and Rusk. When balloting began, 
several others w^ere also voted for. California 
cast sixteen votes for Mr. Blaine, and he received 
enough scattering votes from other States to give 
him a total of 35. For the three ballots held on 
the first day of voting, Mr. Blaine's support re- 
mained at 35 ; although he would have been 
nominated by a whirlwind of acclamation at any 
moment w^hen he had withdrawn his refusal to be 
considered as a candidate. That refusal, how- 
ever, he did not withdraw. On the contrary, he 
made it known by cable from Great Britain that 
he resolutely adhered to and insisted upon it. 
On the first ballot, John Sherman had 229 votes, 
W. Q. Gresham iii, Chauncey M. Depew 99, 
R. A. Alger 84, and Benjamin Harrison 79. By 
the third ballot the withdrawal of minpr candidates 
had increased the vote for these leaders, especially 
that for Alger. But no one was near the 415 
needed. Then the Convention adjourned until 
the next day. The fifth ballot, the next day, saw 



AMERICAN DIPLOMACY. 



Mr. Blaine's vote increased to 42, while Sherman 
had 224, Gresham 87, Alger 142, and Harrison 
213. Depew had been withdrawn in Harrison's 
favor. The Convention adjourned over Sunday, 
and on Monday ended its labors. On the eighth 
ballot Mr. Harrison was nominated, by 544 votes. 
Five delegates voted for Mr. Blaine to the very 
end. 

In this result Mr. Blaine acquiesced most cor- 
dially and with not a trace of disappointment. He 
had voluntarily placed and kept himself out of the 
race. The men who had secured Harrison's 
nomination were Mr. Blaine's friends and follow- 
ers, and they had chosen a man who was Mr. 
Blaine's friend, on a platform inspired by Mr. 
Blaine's own masterly presentation of the issues 
of the day. Amid the flood of congratulations 
that poured in upon the chosen candidate none 
was more hearty than Mr. Blaine's, and no one 
more earnestly than he entered upon the work of 
the campaign or more enthusiastically looked for 
victory at the polls. 

Mr. Blaine returned from his European tour in 
August, arriving in New York on the tenth of 
that month. He was greeted with such public 
demonstrations of honor, joy and welcome as 
have fallen to the lot of few men in this or any 
other land. There was a parade of tens of 
thousands of enthusiastic Republicans, and the 
whole imperial metropolis seemed ablaze with 



5i8 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



bunting- and vocal with hurrahs. There was 
speech-making, of course, galore ; the best of it 
by Mr. Blaine himself In the brief responses 
which he made to various addresses of welcome, 
he spoke wath all his accustomed vigor and effect 
upon the living political issues of the day. Pro- 
tection to American industry was the key-note : 
and he added to his cogent arguments the im- 
pressive testimony of personal observation of the 
pauperized labor of the Old World. 

From New York Mr. Blaine presently went to 
his old home in Maine, stopping at Boston and 
other points to receive the greetings of his fellow- 
citizens. A few weeks later he placed himself 
fully and actively at the head of his party in the 
campaign that was so hotly raging. He visited 
every important town and city in many States, 
addressing everywhere assemblages whose size 
was onlv limited bv the walls of the containinor 
buildings, or by the means of transportation 
thither. Sometimes he spoke at two or three or 
four meetings in one day. His physical strength 
seemed inexhaustible ; his eloquence grew even 
more and more stirring in each new effort ; his 
arguments and exhortations were irresistible. 
Down to the very eve of the election he kept at 
the work, winning every hour new voters for his 
party. And when the election was over, and Mr. 
Harrison was handsomely victorious, there was 
not a dissenting voice in the chorus that 



AMERICAJSr 3 1 PL OMA C\, 5 1 9 

attributed the lion^s share of the credit to James 
G. Blaine. 

Whatever hesitancy President Harrison may 
have had in the selection of the other member:, 
of his Cabinet, he doubtless had none regarding 
the Secretary of State. He was glad to honor 
the man who had so powerfully aided his cam- 
paign by giving to him that important post ; glad, 
too, thus to grant the well-nigh universal wish of 
his party. Nor were Republicans alone anxious 
to see Mr. Blaine a second time made Secretary 
of State. Multitudes of his political opponents 
rejoiced in the appointment, remembering his 
brilliant though brief administration in 1881, and 
knowing that in his hands the welfare of Ameri- 
can interests and the honor of the American flag 
would be secure. Accordingly, Mr. Blaine re- 
turned, in March, 1889, to the office from which 
he had retired in December, 1881, and took up 
the work which had then been interrupted, a 
work for the welfare of the United States, and 
for the w^elfare of all other nations with whom 
this country comes in contact. 

Early in Mr. Blaine's second administration of 
the State Department two highly important trea- 
ties were negotiated and ratified. One of these, 
arranged at Berlin, related to Samoa, where 
American, German and British interests came 
sharply into contact. The Germans had pursued 
an aggressive policy, had deposed the rightful 



520 



JAMES G, BLAINE. 



king and set up a pretender in his place, and 
were riding roughsliod over the rights not only of 
the natives but of the American citizens settled 
there. Calmly but firmly Mr. Blaine, through the 
American Commissioners at Berlin, insisted upon 
a restoration, by the Germans themselves, of the 
deposed king, the recognition of equal rights and 
privileges for the three powers interested, the sup- 
pression of the sale of fire-arms and alcoholic 
liquors to the natives and various other reforms. 
To these demands Germany was constrained to 
yield, and the result was a signal triumph for the 
American foreign policy, and also for international 
comity. 

An attempt had been made by Mr. Blaine's pre- 
decessor to negotiate a new extradition treaty 
with Great Britain, but it had failed. Mr. Blaine 
began fresh negotiations on a new basis and soon 
succeeded in concluding a treaty .which vastly 
enlarged and improved the list of extraditable 
offences. 

An International Marine Conference, compris- 
ing representatives of thirty-three nations, was 
held at Washington, and formulated much valu- 
able legislation for the better protection of travel 
by sea. 

Still more important was the Pan-American 
Conference, which opened at Washington on Oc- 
tober 2, 1889, in pursuance of the plans formed by 
Mr. Blaine in the Garfield administration but 



AMERICAN DIPLOMACY. 



521 



unfortunately abandoned by his successor. This 
conference was in session twenty weeks, including 
an extended trip through most of the States of 
the Union. The objects of its consideration were : 
Measures that should tend to preserve the peace 
and promote the prosperity of the various Ameri- 
can States ; measures toward the formation of an 
American Customs Union ; the establishment of 
regular and frequent communication between the 
ports of the various States ; the adoption of uni- 
form systems of customs regulation, quarantine 
laws, weights and measures, patent rights, extra- 
dition, etc., and various other allied topics. It 
was not to be expected that every end in view 
would be immediately attained. But the discus- 
sions and reports were rich in permanent value to 
all the nations interested, and, as Mr. Blaine well 
said in a brief address at the close of the confer- 
ence, that larger patriotism, which constitutes the 
fraternity of nations, received an impulse such as 
the world had not before seen. 

Fittingly succeeding this came Mr. Blaine's pro- . 
posal for an extended system of customs reci- 
procity, especially with the various States and 
colonies of the American continent. This was 
formally broached in a letter written by Mr. 
Blaine to the President and by him transmitted to 
Congress in June, 1890. Mr. Blaine submitted 
therewith the report upon Customs Union 
adopted by the Pan-American Conference, and 



522 JAMES G, BLAIKE, 

added some strong arguments of his own and a 
most impressive array of facts and figures, de- 
monstrating the great advantages to be attained 
by the adoption of such a system. ''To escape 
the delay of uncertainty of treaties/' he wrote, 
"it has been suggested that a practicable and 
prompt mode of testing the question was to sub- 
mit an amendment to the pending Tariff bill 
authorizing the President to declare the ports of 
the United States free to all the products of any 
nation of the American Hemisphere upon which 
no export duties are imposed, w^henever and so 
long as such nation shall admit to its ports free 
of all taxes our flour, corn meal and other bread 
stuffs, preserved meats, fish, vegetables and 
fruits/' and a considerable number of other arti- 
cles of agricultural and manufactory product. 

]\Ir. Blaine had already personally urged upon 
the members of the committee of Congress in 
charge of the Tariff bill the desirability of such 
an amendment. The President now added 
thereto a messag-e containinof his ov>m recommen- 
dations to the same effect, and Senator Hale finally 
offered an amendment to the Tariff bill formulated 
by Mr. McKinley, comprising the exact provisions 
suggested by Mr. Blaine. This amendment was 
adopted and the principle of reciprocity with 
American nations was thus embodied in the Mc- 
Kinley Tariff Bill, which in the fall of 1890 be- 
came a law. 



EMMONS BLAINE. 



AMERICAN DIPLOMACY. ^25 

Brazil was the first nation to accept the offer of 
reciprocal trade relations. The Spanish West 
indies followed. Then came Santo Domingo. 
And presently other South and Central American 
nations and even the British colonies in the West 
Indies found it to their advantage to do the same. 
The results fully equalled the expectations of the 
author of the system. Almost immediately there 
was a great increase in the export trade of the 
United States to those countries, and since that 
time there has been a steady and almost signifi- 
cant increase of commercial relations bet^veen 
this country and its southern neighbors, to the 
present and permanent advantage of both. 

Another highly important work in the interest 
of American commerce was effected bv the State 
Department during Mr. Blaine's second adminis- 
tration thereof. Beginning with Italy in 1879, 
European country after another had prohibited 
the importation of Am.erican pork, until, at the 
commencement of President Harrison's adminis- 
tration, that important product was practically 
excluded from the markets of Austria-Hungary, 
France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Spain and 
Turkey. This subject received at once the 
earnest attention of the President and his Secre- 
tary of State, and instructions concerning it were 
given to Mr. Whitelaw Reid, the Minister at 
Paris, Mr. William Walter Phelps, the Minister 
at Berlin, and the other representatives of the 
30 



526 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

government abroad. A law was also passed 
providing for the inspection of meat products and 
empowering the President to prohibit in certain 
cases importations from countries excluding 
American pork from their markets. The result 
of this diplomacy *and legislation v/as the removal 
of the prohibition by Austria-Hungary, Denmark, 
France, Germany, Italy and Spain, all within less 
than nine months, and the markets of Europe 
were thus reopened to a vast and valuable 
American export trade. 

For some vears there had been more or less 
friction between America and England regarding 
the riiihts of American fishermen in Canadian 
waters. In many instances intolerable hardships 
and outrages had been inflicted upon the fisher- 
men, and their demand for redress was urgent. 
To this demand Mr. Blaine made prompt 
response, and showed himself easily the master of 
the Canadian and British officials in diplomatic 
controversy. Another still more important sub- 
ject of contention between the two countries was 
that of sealinor rio^hts in Berinof Sea. In virtue of 
its purchase of Alaska and the included waters 
from Russia, the United States claimed exclusive 
jurisdiction over the eastern portion of that sea, 
including the islands which are the resort of the 
great herds of fur-seals. For the protection 
of these valuable animals it adopted certain reg- 
ulations concerning their capture, limiting the 



A MERICAN DIPL OMA GY. j 27 

annual catch to a certain number, and stationed 
revenue cutters in those v/aters to see that the 
law was observed. These regulations were 
defied by numerous poachers, who fitted out 
their vessels under the British flag in Canadian 
ports and who wrought incalculable mischief by 
promiscuous slaughter of the seals. The United 
States Government promptly ordered the capture 
and confiscation of all these vessels. Thereupon 
the poachers appealed to the Canadian Govern- 
ment, and it in turn appealed to the British 
Government, for protection, and a long and 
vigorous controversy ensued between JMr. Blaine 
and Lord Salisbury. The range of discussion 
included the rights of America in Bering sea, on 
historical and legal grounds, and also the practical 
necessity of protecting the seal herds from 
threatened destruction. At every stage of the 
controversv Mr. Blaine showed himself absolute 
master of the case and more than a match for his 
British antagonist. A modus vivendi, in accord- 
ance with the American demands, was finally 
established until such time as a permanent settle- 
ment of conflicting claims shall be eff'ecte 1. 

An important episode in the history of the State 
Department occurred in 1891 and 1892. At that 
time a popular revolution occurred in Chili against 
the President, Balmaceda, who had usurped 
dictatorial authority and was playing the part of 
a tyrant, The American Minister at Santiago, 



5 28 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

Mr. Egan, was accredited to the Balmaceda 
government and could not, of course, recognize 
the revolutionary government until it had fully 
accomplished its purposes and become the sole 
and absolute authority. His position was a deli- 
cate one, and relations between the United 
States and the new government in Chili became 
much strained. A number of Americans were 
assaulted and some murdered in the streets of 
Valparaiso, and for a time there was loud talk of 
war between the two countries. Under Mr. 
Blaine^s management the influence of the State 
Department was exerted in the direction of peace, 
and at the same time for a vindication of the 
honor of the American flag and the rights 
of American citizens ; and in the end these 
objects were entirely and satisfactorily accom- 
plished. 

A controversy arose with Italy in 1891, over 
the lynching of several murderous criminals of 
Italian origin in New Orleans. Diplomatic re- 
lations between the two countries were for a time 
suspended. But Mr. Blaine, by masterly argu- 
ment, first demonstrated the entire freedom of 
the United States Government from blame and 
responsibility in the matter, and then handsomely 
soothed Italian susceptibilities by voluntarily 
oflering from the contingent fund of the State 
Department a liberal indemnity to the families of 
the men who had been lynched. Thus this 



AMERICAN DIPL OMACY. 5 29 

unpleasant incident was ended peacefully and 
honorably. 

Of all the other activities of the State Depart- 
ment under Mr. Blaine's wise direction it' is 
impossible here to speak. Many of these matters 
are still incomplete. Others are not yet fully 
understood by the world, so that much time must 
yet elapse before their full significance is seen and 
appreciated. But enough has already gone on 
record, read and known of all men. to assure the 
utmost confidence for the future, and to stamp 
Mr. Blaine's administration of the Department of 
State as not only one of the most brilliant periods 
in American diplomacy, but as a most notable era 
in the world^s international history. 



CHAPTER XVIIL 



THE MAN. 

Foreign Travels and Literary Work — The London Times' s Estimate of 
Twenty Years of Congress" — ^Mr. Blaine's Home at Augusta— His 
Washington House — His Bar Harbor Cottage-^The Children of the 
Household — A Brief Glance at Some of Mr. Blaine's Personal Char- 
acteristies. 

It is not the object of the present Y\'ork to offer 
an analytical view of Mr. Blaine's private life and 
personal characteristics. The record of his pub- 
lic words and works is all that can fittingly occupy 
our present attention. But even this record is 
not complete without an outlined portrait of the 
man as he appears to his friends and associates 
in public life and as he conducts himself in the 
manifold activities of his busy career. During 
the years of his retirement from public office be- 
tween t88i and 1889, his time was largely qccu- 
pied in European travel and in literary pursuits. 
>.iention has already been made of his tour abroad, 
where he visited most of the important centres 
of interest of the Old World and formed the 
personal acquaintance of eminent people in many 
lands. 

530 



THE MAN. 



Early in 18S4 he published the first volume of 
his great historical work, Twenty Years of Con- 
gress/' and in 1885 the second volume was 
issued. This work presents a comprehensive and 
impartial view of the life of the American nation 
from i860 to 1880, prefaced by a careful con- 
sideration of the train of events which led to the 
political revolution of i860. The book is too well 
known to the reading public of America to require 
extended notice here. It attracted wade atten- 
tion throughout the world. English reviewers 
regarded it as one of the most important contribu- 
tions to the standard literature of the day. His 
book/' said The London Times, ''is in no sense 
a party manifesto ; it is a careful narrative ; 
popular, but not undignified in style, and remark- 
ably fair and moderate in tone. He has ex- 
pressed a decided opinion on all issues involved 
in the Civil War, but he is able to appreciate the 
arguments and respect the motives of those 
whom he holds to have been most widely mis- 
taken.*' 

Following this work in 1887 Mr. Blaine 
published a volume entitled '* Political Discus- 
sions," in which were collected his most notable 
addresses and papers, legislative, diplomatic and 
popular, during the thirty years of his public 
life. 

Mr. Blaine's home has been in Augusta, Maine, 
ever since he removed thither from Philadelphia. 



532 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



During his official life he of course has had a 
second home in Washington, and of late years he 
has had also a summer home at Bar Harbor, 
Mount Desert Island. Each of these has been 
the resort of countless public men and each has 
always been open with a hearty welcome to Mr. 
Blaine's almost innumerable friends. The capital 
of Maine is a handsome little city on both banks 
of the Kennebec river, built on a series of terraces 
extending, one above the other, from the edge of 
the water. For a few years Mr. Blaine lived in 
one half of a double house on Green street. 
But in 1862 he purchased a large square house 
at the corner of State and Capital streets, opposite 
the grounds of the State House. It is a plain 
and unpretentious dwelling, but large and com- 
modious and invested with an air of comfort, cult- 
ure and hospitality. The visitor finds it well 
stocked with books and pictures, and in all 
respects the appropriate liome of one who was at 
once a statesman, a scholar, and a man of the 
people. 

At Washington Mr. Blaine purchased a fine 
lot on Dupont circle, in the northwestern part of 
the city, and erected thereon a large and splendid 
mansion. On its completion he lived there for a 
-time and then, finding the house larger than he 
required, leased it and rented for his own occu- 
pancy a smaller house on Jackson square, near 
the White House. 



THE MAN. 



533 



His cottage at Bar Harbor was a typical Ameri- 
can summer home, and was occupied by Mr. 
Blaine and his family for two or three months in 
each year. 

The first child born to Mr. and Mrs. Blaine 
died in infancy. Six other children have grown 
to maturity, three sons and three dauo^hters. 
The eldest son, Walker, was educated at Yale 
University and at the Law School of Columbia 
College. He chose to follow in his father's foot- 
steps in political life, for which he showed extraor- 
dinary ability. For some time he was one oL 
the counsel for the United States in the Court of 
Commissioners of Alabama Claims. At the be- 
ginning of the Harrison Administration, on 
March 13, 1889, he was made Examiner of 
Claims in the State Department. This important 
position he filled with distinction for only nine 
months, his death occurring on January 15, 1890. 
Thus was ended, to the bereavement of his family 
and the regret of the Nation, a career that prom- 
ised to be comparable with that of his father in 
important and distinguished public services. The 
second son, Emmons Blaine, was educated at 
Harvard University, and has risen to an import- 
ant place in W estern railroad affairs. The youngest 
son, James G. Blaine, Jr., is destined for a busi- 
ness career. 

The three daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Blaine 
were named Alice, Margaret and Harriet. The 



534 



JAMES G. BLAINjL 



first was married to Colonel J. J. Coppinger, of 
the United States Army, and died a few years 
afterward. The second, Margaret, Avas married 
in May, 1890, to Mr. Walter Damrosch, o\ 
New York, a son of Dr. Leopold Damrosch, 
the famous musician, and himself one of the fore- 
m.ost musical composers and directors of this 
country. 

It is inevitable that a man in public life, if he 
possess strong convictions and act upon them, 
will have opponents, and even enemies, as well as 
friends. Mr. Blaine was no exception to this 
rule. No m^an of this generation has been the 
target for more, or more bitter attacks ; nor has 
any more triumphantly repulsed them. And no 
man has had more, or more devoted and enthusi- 
astic, friends. Apart from, his brilliant talents as 
a statesman, inspiring admiration and compel- 
ling devoted support, Mr. Blaine possessed a 
happy faculty of winning and holding personal 
friendship. His m_anner was unaffected and cordial. 
His memory of friends was extraordinary. He 
seemed never to forget a face or a name. In the 
later years of his life, he often met those whom he 
knew twenty or tliirty years before, but had not 
seen or heard of in all that interval. But he 
never failed to recognize them and to ''place'' 
them, and to recall some associated incident of 
the olden time. His tact in dealing with men, 
whether friends or strangers, was unfailing and 



THE MAN, 535 

unerriiiQ:, i\nd in all the relations of life lie ap- 
peared to possess in the highest degree all those 
qualities which make a man a leader of men, a 
great public servant, a loved and trusted friend, 
and an entirely manly man. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 

Mr. Blaine Declines Further Political Preferment, and Retires from the 
Cabinet — The Minneapolis Convention, and the Campaign of 1892 — 
Mr. Blaine's Failing Health — His Wonderful Struggle against the 
Foe — His Death, 

As the time for another Presidential Campaign, 
in 1892, drew near, many RepubHcans began look- 
ing once more to Mr. Blaine, as their favorite 
candidate. His popularity had never been greater, 
and the party was as ready and as eager to follow 
him as ever before. He decided, however, not 
again t > enter the lists, and in good time an- 
nounced his resolution in the following unsolicited 
letter : 

Washington, Feb. 6, 1892. 

Honorable J. S. Clarkson, 

Chairman of the Republican i\aiio7tal Committee^ 
My Dear Sir : — I am not a candidate for the Presidency and my name 
will not go before the Republican National Convention for the nominatioii. 
I make this announcement in due season. 

To those who have tendered me their support I owe sincere thanks, and 
am most grateful for their confidence. They will, I am sure, make earnest 
effort in the approaching contest, which is rendered specially important by 
reason of the industrial and financial policies of the Government being at 
stake. The popular decision on these issues is of great moment, and will 
be of far-reaching consequence. 

Very sincerely yours, 

JAMES G. BLAINE. 

There were still those who hoped that he would 
reconsider his decision and accept a nomination. 
536 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 



537 



But the great majority of his friends and followers 
regarded this letter as conclusive, as its writer 
doubtless intended it to be, and with unspeakable 
regret gave up their long-cherished ambition of 
placing Mr. Blaine in the Presidential chair. 

Mr. Harrison was known to be a candidate for 
renomination, and the general sentiment of the 
' party was that he well deserved that honor. The 
election of delegates to the National Convention 
strongly indicated the prevalence of this sentiment, 
a large majority of those chosen favoring the 
renomination of the President. 

On June 4, 1892, Mr. Blaine tendered to the 
President his resignation of the office of Secretary 
of State, w^hich he had filled wdth such distinction 
and so greatly to the benefit of his country. The 
resignation was at once accepted, and a day or 
two later Mr. Blaine and his family left Washing- 
ton for their home in Maine. 

The National Republican Convention met at 
Minneapolis on June 7th. From the first it was 
evident that a majority of the delegates would 
vote for the renomination of President Harrison, 
But a large minority could not and would not 
abandon the project of nominating Mr. Blaint^. 
although there was no reason to suppose that he 
desired or would accept a nomination. The only 
candidates formally presented to the Convention 
were Mr. Harrison and Mr. Blaine, the chief 
speeches introducing their iiames being made 



rjg JAMES C. BLAINE, 

respectively by the Hon. Chauncey M. Depewand 
Senator Wolcott, of Colorado. Every mention of 
Mr. Blaine evoked the most tumultuous enthu- 
siasm', even among tliose who did not intend to 
vote for him. But the fact that he still stood by 
the determination expressed in the letter of Febru- 
ary 6th, restrained the majority even of his closest 
friends from seeking to nominate him. 

The first and only ballot was taken on Friday 
afternoon, June loth, and President Harrison re- 
ceived a large majority, and was thus made the 
candidate of the party for a second term. The 
considerable minority vote was about equally 
divided between Mr. Blaine and Governor McKin- 
ley, of Ohio. On the first and only ballot for a 
candidate for the Vice-Presidency, the Hon. White- 
law Reid was chosen. He had for many years 
been the editor of The New York Tribune, and 
for the last three years Minister to France, and 
had long been a close friend and earnest supporter 
of Mr. Blaine. 

The result of the Convention's work was re- 
ceived by Republicans throughout the country 
with hearty satisfaction and with an earnest en- 
thusiasm that presaged success at the polls. Mr. 
Blaine received the nevv^s while he was in Boston, 
on his way to Maine. He expressed pleasure at 
the ending of the contest and at his own escape 
from political cares and labors into the quiet and 
freedom of private life. He added : 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN, 539 

*'The resolution, energy and persistence which 
marked the proceedings of the Convention at 
Minneapolis will, if turned against the common 
foe, win the election in November. i\ll minor 
differences should be forgotten in the duty of 
every Republican to do all in his pow@r to elect 
the ticket this day nominated by the National 
Republican Convention." 

A few hours later, he left Boston for his home, 
carrying with him the undying confidence, esteem 
and love of his countrymen in such measure as 
not many men of this or any land have ever 
enjoyed. 

Pvlr. Blaine's health had, for some years, been 
uncertain. The prostration, in 1876 had left 
ineradicable traces, and the shock and subsequent 
strain which he suffered in 1 880, in the assassina- 
tion of Garfield, had further impaired his consti- 
tution. Family bereavements also told upon him 
seriously during the closing years of his life, and 
. the work which he did for the nation as President 
Harrison's Secretary of. State, sorely overtaxed 
his enercjies. In his retirement to the leisure of 
private life he hoped to secure a prolongation of 
his waning lease of life ; but in vain. One of the 
most insidious and deadly of maladies, Bright's 
disease, had long since fastened its hold upon 
him, and no medical skill nor tender care was 
able to overcome it. 



540 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



During most of the summer he remauied at 
his home in Maine, an interested spectator of 
the great poHtical battle in which he was physi- 
cally unable to take his wonted part. In the 
early autumn he travelled to New York, and was 
for a time the guest of his friend, Mr. Whitelaw 
Reid. He even took part in several political 
conferences, and made a speech on the issues of 
the campaign to an audience assembled at Mr. 
Reid's suburban home. But, great as was his 
> desire to do so, he was unable to take any more 

active part in the campaign, and he presently 
retired to his home in Washington to fight out his 
own grim battle. 

His Washington house \yas an historic one ; 
and one of tragic history. It had been the home 
of William H. Seward, and was the scene of the 
murderous attack upon that statesman and his 
son by a member of the band of assassins who 
compassed the death of Abraham Lincoln. Nor 
had Mr. Blaine's occupancy of it been free from 
woe. While living there he lost, first, his favorite 
son, Walker; then his daughter, Mrs. Coppinger ; 
and then his son, Emmons. Thus the popular 
superstition, that ill-luck haunted the house, 
seemed justified. 

It was on December 17, 1892, that Mr. Blaine 
was fixrst formally declared by his attendants to be 
near deadi. On that day he had an alarming 



WALKER BLAINE. 



THE LAST CAMPAIGX. j-^j 

sinking, and a bulletin was issued by his doctor 
in these words ; 

''Mr. Blaine has been suffering for some time 
past with symptoms of imipaired general health, 
but which did not clearly indicate the disease oi 
any particular organ. Evidence of local organic 
disease has been mxanifested recently, and it is 
believed his present condition is due to this cause. 
While there is noticing- in the disease to warrant 
the fear of any very rapid progress, he has shown 
within a month past miore signs of serious illness 
than before. It is hoped that this aggravation 
may pass off, but no positive statement can now 
be made as to changes which miay take place from 
day to day." 

AH the next day his death was momentarily 
expected. But his marvellous vitality enabled him 
to rally, and a fevv^ days later he Vv^as able to sit up 
in his bed, and his family and physicians began 
seriously to consider the feasibility of removing 
him to the m.ilder climate of the South, or of 
the Pacific Coast. 

-MeantimxC, popular manifestations of interest in 
the condition of the distinoruished sufferer were 

o 

very great. Night and day, newspaper corres- 
pondents lingered near the sick-room, sending out 
frequent bulletins, vdiich were read with deep 
solicitude all over the land. 

Early in January, 1S93, he again showed symp- 
toms of fatal sinking, and on the Sth of that mondi 



544 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



his condition was described as follows by one of 
his closest friends: ''Mr. Blaine has not had a 
connected thought for thirty days past. The heart, 
while nourishing other organs, has not been strong 
enough to furnish the necessary blood for the 
brain. Hence it is that, like the ancient pine, Mr. 
Blaine has been slowly perishing at the top. Mr. 
Blaine dies like a philosopher at last, distasteful 
as the subject of death has been to him in other 
and stronger days. A few weeks since he called 
his family about him and calmly told them that 
he did not qxpect to recover. He was in full 
possession of his mental faculties, and went over 
his affairs in detail, and said to each of his children 
all that he had to say. In the intervening period 
the members of the family have gradually become 
reconciled to the end, which is impending. When 
the history is written of Mr. Blaine's illness, the 
touching devotion of the wife and mother wiJl be 
one of its interesting chapters. No one except 
the intimates^ of the family are able to appreciate 
her fidelity and watchfulness and courage. Mrs. 
Blaine has remained at the bedside of her husband 
almost unintermittingly, watching every indica- 
tion of change, and aiding promptly in every case 
of emergency. Through all the stages of despond- 
ency and grief which Mr. Blaine has passed of 
late she has been at his side to cheer and soothe 
and strengthen him.'' 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN, 



545 



Steadily the strength of the illustrious sufferer 
ebbed away Day after day he lay, helpless and 
unconscious. Finally, on January 27, at eleven 
o'clock in the morning, the end cameo There Imd 
been no marked change in his condition during 
the night, although he had been rather restless, 
and then there was an ominous increase of lan- 
guor. After breakfast, betw^n 8 and 9 o'clock, 
the experienced eye of the nurse saw that death 
was at hand. The mem'bers of the family and 
the two physicians who had been in attendance, 
were quickly summoned. Nitro-glycerine, the 
most powerful heart-stimulant, was administered. 
On former occasions it had rallied his failing 
powers ; but now it had no effect. Dr. Hyatt 
and Dr. Johnston could do nothing more, but 
stand by and watch for the end. Around the bed 
were grouped also Mrs. Blaine, her three surviv- 
ing children. Miss Harriet Blaine, Mrs. Walter 
Damrosch, and James G. Blaine, Jr., and Miss 
Mary A. Dodge Gail Hamilton,") Mr. Blaine's 
cousin. The patient wa*s e^itirely conscious, and 
recognized them all. He was also quite free from 
pain. And he passed away so gently that the 
watchers were unaware of the exact moment of 
his death. 

As soon as the news of Mr. Blaine's death was 
announced, a host of callers began to enter the 
house to offer expressions of sympathy and regret. 



546 



TAMES G. BI.AIXE, 



The President hastened from the White I louse, 
and was quickly followed by members of the 
Cabinet, Senators, Representatives, members of 
the Diplomatic Corps, and numbers of others, of 
promiinent rank in social and official life. Both 
Houses of Congress adjourned, an extraordinary 
mark of resoect to one holdino; no official station. 
Equally marked and exceptional was the action 
of the President in issuing a public proclamation 
announcing the death of his ex-Secretary, and 
ordering the Executive Departments of the 
Government to be closed on the day of his 
funeral. The proclamation read as follows : 

r Executive Mansion, 
\ Washington, January 27, 1893. 
'Tt is my painful duty to announce to the people 
of the United States the death of James Gillespie 
Blaine, which occurred in this city to-day at 1 1 
o'clock. 

''For a full generation this eminent citizen has 
occupied a conspicuous -and influential position in 
the Nation. His first public service Vv^as in the 
Legislature of his State. Afterward, for fourteen 
years, he was a mem.ber of the National House of 
Representatives, and Vv^as three times chosen its 
Speaker. In 1876, he was elected to the Senate. 
He resigned his seat in that body, in iSSi, to 
accept the position of Secretary of State in the 
Cabinet of President Garfield. After the tragic 
death of his chief he resigned from the Cabinet, 



THE LAST CAMPAIGA^, 



547 



and, devoting himself to literary work, gave to the 
pubHc in his 'Twenty Years in Congress' a 
most vakiable and enduring- contribution to our 
poHtical Hterature. In March, 1889, he again 
became Secretary of State, and continued to 
exercise this office until June, 1892. 

His devotion to the pubhc interests, his marked 
abihty and his exalted patriotism have won for 
him the gratitude and affection of his countrymen 
and the admiration of the world. In the varied 
pursuits of legislation, diplomacy and literature, 
his genius has added new lustre to American 
citizenship. 

*'As a suitable expression of the National sorrow 
caused by his death, I direct that on the day of 
his funeral all the Departments of the Executive 
branch of the Government at Washington be 
closed, and that on all public buildings throughout 
the United States the National flag shall be dis- 
played at half-staff; and that for a period of thirty 
days the Department of State be draped in 
mourning. Benjamin Harrison. 

By the President : 

John W. Foster, Secretary of Stated 

Similar tributes of respect were paid all over 
the country. State Legislatures adopted suitable 
resolutions and adjourned. In Mr. Blaine's ovvm 
State of Maine the public and private grief was 
most profound. The news was announced to the 



548 



JAMES G, BLAINE, 



State Senate by the Governor in the following 
special message : 

{ State of Maine, Executive Department, 
( Augusta, Me., January 27, 1893. 

To the Senate and House of Representatives : 
''For weeks the eyes of the American people 
have been turned toward the capital of the 
nation. This morning, at 1 1 o'clock, James G. 
Blaine, the matchless debater, the brilliant orator, 
the matchless statesman, died in the city of Wash- 
ington. In these halls he began his distinguished 
public career. We recall with pride his patriotic 
utterance, in early life, to the people of Maine : 
' Perish all things else, the national life must 
be saved.' He loved his State and believed 
in her people. Political affiliations have never 
estranged the deep affection entertained for him 
by his countrymen. Men of all parties mourn 
his death, but this great loss is most keenly felt 
by our people, for they claimed him as their own. 
I have directed that the national flag be dis- 
played at half-mast upon the public buildings of 
the State, and, during the funeral services, all the 
departments of the executive branch of the State 
Government will be closed. I trust the Legis- 
lature will take appropriate action in honor of the 
memory of the deceased. 

Henry B. Cleaves, Governor'' 
A similar proclamation was issued to the people 
of the State. The Mayor of Augusta also pub- 



7'HE LAST CAMPAIGN. 



549 



lished a message to the people of that city, and 
the City Government, at a special meeting, 
adopted these resolutions : 

City of Augusta, Board of Aldermen, 
Januaiy 27, 1893, 
*'The citizens of Augusta have learned with pro- 
found regret of the decease of their distinguished 
fellow-citizen, Hon. James G. Blaine. To the 
world at large his death has come as a public loss, 
because, as one of America's foremost men for 
many years he has attracted and held the public 
eye. To us, however, his death comes with a 
tenderer significance. This was his home. Here 
he came in his young manhood to engage in busi- 
ness enterprise. Here his children were born 
and reared. Here began his marvellous political 
career, when as a member of the Maine Legisla- 
ture he represented this city in the House of 
Representatives. That career did not cease till 
he had become the acknowledged leader of his 
own political party, and was granted the merit 
of statesmanship even by his political opponents. 
Amid all his triumphs, however, he remained true 
to the home of his adoption, and its citizens have 
remained true to him. Others may remember 
him for his brilliant attainments, his forceful 
character, his irresistible personality; but the 
citizens of Augusta will ever cherish his memory 
because, through all his varied fortunes he was 
still one of our people, keenly interested in our 



JAMES G, BLAIXr. 



Avelfare, generous to every worthy cause, a genial 
neighbor, a warm-hearted and devoted friend, 
therefore, 

''Resolved^ That the City Council cause this sim- 
pie tribute to the memory of Augusta's most dis- 
tinguished citizen to be entered upon its records, 
and a copy sent to the sorrowing family as an 
expression of the tender symxpathy of their old- 
time friends and neig-hbors. 

''Resolved, further, That as a final mark of 
respect to one whom we delighted to honor in his 
life, we suggest that all places of business be 
closed and all business in the city be suspended 
during the funeral hours, and that our citizens 
arrange for an appropriate memorial service to be 
held on the dav of the funeral/' 

The official statement of the attending physi- 
cians, regarding the cause of I\Ir. Blaine's death, 
was promiptly made public, as follows : 

The beginning of INIr. Blaine's illness dates back some 3'ears. The 
earliest signs of ill-health were associated with and no doubt due to a 
gout}' tendency, which manifested itself in subacute attacks of gout, 
disturbances of digestion and progressive innutrition and anaemia. 

Subsequent events prove that at this time changes were going on in 
the arteries of the body, which resulted later in symptoms of oblitera- 
tion of vessels, and in chronic disease of the kid:^e3'3. The attack of 
paralysis, in 1SS7, was connected with sim^ilar alterations in the blood- 
vessels of the brain. 

During the summer of 1S92 the evidences of failing health were more 
decided, and in November, after his return to Washington, his symp- 
toms suddenly assumed an aggravated form. From this time, although 
there were periods of apparent improvement, he continued to grow- 
worse from week to week. Tlie symptoms were, at first, more direc'.ly 
connected with the kidneys, and examinations of the urine showed tiiat 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 



551 



there was a progressive interstitial change going on in that organ, and 
that he had a form of chronic Bright's disease. 

In December signs of lung comolication appeared, which we're, no 
doubt, connected with the general disease ; but as tubercle bacilli were 
found in the.sputa, it is probable that there was some tubercular infec- 
tion as well. Much of the distress which Mr Blaine suffered was 
associated with this disease of the lungs, and his death was certainly 
hastened by it. 

Toward the end of December the heart began to show signs of un 
usual weakness from cardiac degeneration and dilatation, and on 
December i8th he had an alarming attack of heart exhaustion ; from 
this he rallied, but others of the same nature occurred on several occa- 
sions. From the middle of January these attacks ceased , and the action 
of the heart was more uniformly good. There was, however, a daily 
loss of flesh and strength. 

For three days before Mr. Blaine's death there was'no marked change 
in his condition ; each daj^ he seemed somewhat more feeble than on 
the day before, and on the night before his death he did not seem to be 
in any immediate danger. Toward the morning of the 27th inst., his 
pulse was observed to be very feeble and his breathing more embarras- 
sed. As a result of the failing heart action, oedema of the lungs 
occurred, and he died without much suffering, at 11 o'clock. 

During the whole of Mr. Blaine's illness the digestion was well per- 
formed and liquid food (chiefly milk) was taken in full quantities. His 
mind was generally clear, except when clouded by uraemia and dis- 
turbed brain circulation, and although unable to express himself in 
words, he recognized all the members of his famil)^ up to within a few 
moments of his death. 

Drs. Janeway and Loomis, of New York, w^ere called in consultation 
and rendered important service by their advice. 

William W. Johnston, M, D. 
Frank Hyatt, M. D. 



CHAPTER XX. 



FINAL TRIBUTES. 

An Outburst of National Grief — Words of Tribute from Chauncey M. 
Depew, Senator Hoar, Ex-Secretaries Fish and Evarts, Henry Wat- 
terson, and others — Dr. MacArthur's Version of the Burchard 
Incident — The Funeral Services at the House — At the Church of the 
Covenant — At the Grave in Oak Hill Cemetery — The End. 

Seldom in the history of any nation has the 
death of one man called forth so many and so 
sincere expressions of grief and tributes of affec- 
tionate esteem as did the death of James G. 
Blaine. The whole American people mourned 
their loss. Closed public offices, flags at half- 
mast, and other outward emblems of bereavement, 
were visible everywhere. And there were every- 
where audible the v/ords of those who had known 
and loved him, or who, not personally knovv/'ing 
him, had yet loved and admired and followed him. 
His long and active public life had brought him 
into immediate contact with many individuals. 
And as he had himself a marvellous faculty of 
remembering everyone he ever met, so, too, his 
magnetic personality so impressed those whom he 
met that they ever after well remembered him. 
552 



FINAL TRIBUTES, 



553 



The Hon. ChaunceyM. Depew, for many years 
one of Mr Blaine's most intimate friends, said of 
him : 

''Mr. Blaine enjoys the unique distinction of 
having been better understood by the plain people 
of the United States and more thoroughly mis- 
understood by the highly educated and hypercrit- 
ical citizens than any other one of our statesmen. 

The secret of his success was his lucidity and 
candor. That lucidity and candor, combined with 
inimitable quickness of application, earnestness 
and action created the impression in the Mug- 
wump intellect that he was a trickster— a danger- 
ous factor in politics, a man tq be watched and 
feared. 

**No statesman of our country, save Henry 
Clay, has ever had siach a hold on the popular 
minds, and no one has been in such close 
touch with the people. At any time within the 
last twenty years he would have been triumphantly 
elected President, except for untoward accidents 
and extraordinary misrepresentations, which 
everybody regretted after the election was over. 
It was exceedingly touching to sit in a bar- room 
of a country hotel, where the whole countryside 
gathered, or to meet after the county committee's 
meeting, at a reception given by some citizen, the 
representatives of all the town, and hear them talk 
about 'Jim Blaine' with a personal affection and 
an apparent intimate acquaintance, as if he had 



554 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



been a member of their own household. Probably 
none of them had ever met him, and yet he was 
an essential part of their personal, political and 
social lives. Mr. Blaine possessed the rare 
faculty, which is in itself a gift of popularity, of 
never forgetting a face or a name. It is said that 
Henry Clay possessed it. I have seen extraor- 
dinary illustrations of it by Thurlow Weed and by 
the Prince of Wales, but beyond Mr. Blaine, Mr. 
Weed and the Prince of Wales, I have never 
known any man in public or private life who had it. 

Mr. Blaine would be introduced at some mass 
meeting or a reception in Washington or at the 
railway station to a farmer or a mechanic or a 
lawyer and to hundreds of them. Subsequently 
one of these men would be in his presence at some 
place distant from the town vv^here the introduction 
occurred. Mr. Blaine would grasp him by the 
hand, call him by. name, recall the circumstances 
of the introduction, and with a cordial grasp and 
a peculiar look state some incident of their brief 
conversation ; and that man was ready for the rest 
of his life to be burned at the stake for James G. 
Blaine. 

''I have studied Mr. Blaine's oratory in the 
scores of times or so that I have been upon the 
same platform with him. He was not eloquent in 
our American understanding of that word ; but 
he had a certain clearness of statement, directness 
of argument, plain and understandable way of 



FINAL TRIBUTES. 555 

putting things which carried his audience. His 
great forte was to make a short speech and to 
make one subject the prominent feature of the 
speech which he was m.aking. He invariabhy cap- 
tured his audience at the time, and none of themx 
ever forgot him^. 

He will stand In our history as the ablest par- 
liamentarian and most skilful debater of our Con- 
gressional history. His marvellous mem.ory, his 
inimitable tact, his almost miiraculous perception 
of the weak point of the adversary, the sudden- 
ness of his attack, and his ability to cover his 
retreat made him invincible upon the floor as the 
leader of his party. He had an unusual combina- 
tion of boundless audacity with infinite tact. No 
man during his active career has disputed with 
him his hold upon the popular imagination and 
his leadership of his party. He has left no suc- 
cessor vvho possesses in any degree such as he 
possessed it the affection and the confidence of his 
followers,'' 

Senator George F. Hoar, of Massachusetts, had 
been associated with Mr. Blaine for many years 
in Congress, and had knov\m and studied all con- 
spicuous i\mericans of his generation. In speak- 
ing of the departed statesman he said : 

''To draw an adequate portrait of Mr. Blaine 
would require almost his own genius. He was, 
since the death of our great military chieftains, 
the most conspicuous and striking personal 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



presence in American public life. Even when 
Grant, Sherman and Sheridan were at the height 
of their fame, Mr. Blaine shared with them the 
affection of his countrymen, and his coming would 
have created anywhere in the country as great 
popular enthusiasm as that of either of the three 
great chieftains. The feeling for him was that 
which is felt for a bright and attractive boy. He 
had always, amid the most serious and grave 
responsibilities, that gift of youth which was the 
charm of Charles James Fox, and which made him 
the best beloved of the great E^nglish statesmen. 
Mr. Blaine had a marvellous literary instinct. 
His style was free from exaggeration and excess 
and the litble pomposities of phrase which are the 
vice of our American speech. His eulogy on 
Garfield has always seemed to me one of the most 
exquisite productions of the class to which it 
belongs. Mr. Blaine had great skill in seeing 
what position on difficult and exciting public ques- 
tions was likely to receive the support of his 
party, and to be popular in the country. I think 
his leadership, if his health had be@n continued, 
would have prolonged the lease of power of the 
Republican party. Mr. Blaine was a learned man 
in American politics. He had this knowledge 
always at his command. It lent a great charm to 
his familiar conversation at his 6wn table, where 
he was the most charming of hosts, and in society, 
where he was the most sought for of guests. I 



FINAL TRIBUTES. 



557 



think it a great pity that he was never elected 
President. I think his pilotage would have 
steered the vessel of the Republic safely. His 
administration of the Department of State was 
"enouo-h to show how^ mistaken w^ere those who 
expected a quarrelsome, sensational, fickle and 
feeble administration of foreign affairs of the 
country." 

Two of Mr. Blaine's predecessors to the office 
of Secretary of State were Hamilton Fish and 
William M. Evarts. Mr. Fish was Secretary of 
State in President Grant's Cabinet, while Mr. 
Blaine was speaker of the house of Representa- 
tives. On hearing of Mr. Blaine's death, he said : 
great man has gone. He was the greatest 
Am.erican of his time, and his death probably ends 
the most active life in our history. For twenty- 
five or thirty years he has been a powerful figure 
in the country, and his fight against death has 
been a brave one. He filled a large space in pol- 
itics and in the administration of the Government, 
but the end, coming- at this time, I do not believe 
v/ill effect a change in the administration or any- 
thing else. That has been discounted by his long 
illness. I did not mxeet Mr. Blaine of recent years. 
When I knew him, he was vigorous of body as well 
as in mind, and he was one of those aggressive, 
ambitious, energetic statesmen w^hose qualities 
drew some men toward them, and at the same time 
made enemies for them. When I w^as in the State 



5S8 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



Department i saw much of him. He was speaker 
of the House at that time, and he Hved with his 
fanily in a house directly across the street from 
where I hved. My personal relations with him 
wore always pleasant. As speaker of the House 
he was wonderfully able and efficient, and he was 
always a fearless man. He had more hold on the 
popular feeling than any other man since Henry 
Clay's timxe, but like him he failed in the one great 
ambition of his life. He was like Seward, Doug- 
las and Clay. The same qualities that attracted 
somie toward him made enemies. Seward, Doug- 
las and Clay were all leaders, though, and so was 
Blaine. His wise counsels have been missed by 
his party, but at the present time his death will 
have no political effect.'' 

''His death will be universally regretted, and the 
unkind things that have been said about him will 
be, I think, not repeated. He was an affectionate 
man in his own family, and during the eight years 
he lived near me I had an opportunity to see what 
an interest he took in his family, and what love 
and admiration he had for his children. But his 
• death will not only be mourned by his widow and 
children. For months the whole country has been 
watching at his bedside and the whole country 
will mourn its loss. I cannot say too much of 
Mr. Blaine's ability. Had he not. been so great 
and brilliant he might have been President. He 
was a great man when he first entered upon a 



FINAL TRIBUTES, 



559 



political career. He became greater as years 
rolled by. He has been accused of sensational 
things, but Vvdien Secretary of State under Harrison 
he did nothing of a rash or sensational sort. Blaine 
was a man with a most remarkable memory, and 
in debate he could quote figures for hours without 
referring to notes. He was certainly the greatest 
American of his time, and during the latter years 
of his life the people had every confidence in him, 
and they felt assured that if he ever had reached 
the Presidential chair his administration would 
have been conservative and prosperous. The 
nation has lost its greatest citizen ; his unique 
place in history will never be filled/' 

Mr. Evarts was Secretary of State in President 
Hayes' Cabinet v/hen Mr. Blaine was in the 
Senate. He said : 

'Tt is the close of a very eventful political 
career. Mr. Blaine v/as one of the most brilliant 
public men in the history of the country. Besides 
his brilliant public career he attracted about him 
more personal admiration and applause than any 
man of his time. His hold in a place of history 
and in the affections of the people of the United 
States will live long after his death. My acquaint- 
ance with Mr. Blaine was intimate and ao^reeable 
for many years, and I followed v\ath interest the 
career of the most conspicuous personality in 
recent public life. Mr. Blaine was an able pre- 
siding officer in the House, and in the Senate he 
32 



56o 



JAMES G. BLAINE. 



ably demonstrated his capacity and ability readily 
to grasp great questions of the day. At one time 
there was no orator In America who was more 
than his equal, and in debate he was an antagonist 
worthy to meet. His memory was something 
marvellous, and facts and figures, when necessary, 
were always at his tongue's end. He Itad one 
great ambition. He had the right to it. There 
are others who aspired to the Presidency, and 
were as capable as Mr. Blaine of administering 
the affairs of the highest office in the land, but, 
like Henry Clay, it was destined that he should 
never reach the White House. But his fame 
could not have been greater had he reached the 
height of his ambition. His place in history will 
always remain. More ample testimony as to his 
brilliant and varied career, accomplishments and 
services may well await a later day/' 

Nor were tributes of praise by any means con- 
fined to Mr. Blaine's party friends. His political 
opponents, even those of the South, who had for 
years been warring with him incessantly, gener- 
ously offered their meed of respect. One of the 
most distinguished and eloquent of them, the Hon. 
Henry Watterson, said : 

''Among the modern leaders of American party 
politics James G. Blaine stood easily first. In the 
power of drawing to himself the admiration of 
great masses of the people, and of arousing the 
enthusiasm of his followers, he had no equal in 



FIXAL TRIBUTES. 



S6i 



either political camp. A certain lack of prestige 
which marked his brief service in the Senate may 
be traced directly to the circumstance that he 
was not a trained lawyer. No man has ever made 
a career in the Senate — -that graveyard of Presi- 
dential hopes and coffin of slain am.bitions-™who 
was not. But as a commoner upon the floor of 
the National House of Representatives, Mr. Blaine 
was a Titan. He was a Titan before the people. 
He was a Titan among his political associates in 
the closet and at the round table where party 
plans are laid and party plans decided. Mr. 
Blaine's lot w^as cast in high party lines. In 
political controversy he neither asked nor gave 
quarter. But in his private intercourse he v/as 
altogether free from political prejudices, unreserved 
and generous to his adversaries, genial to all, 
and altogether delightful as a companion. He 
was not so august as Clay nor so unguarded as 
Douglas ; but he will rank with those for a party 
leader, and be classed with them and compared 
to them by the biographers, for, as political chief- 
tains and popular debaters, the trio possessed 
much in common. Peace to the ashes of a noble 
adversary. All honor to the name of a great 
American. At last the Plumed Knight has joined 
the knightly throng whom the ages have assem- 
bled on the other side.'' 

Captain Hugh R. Garden, for many years presi- 
dent of the Southern Society of New York, said : 



562 



JAMES G, BLAINE, 



\ regarded Mr. Blaine as the foremost American 
since Charles Sumner. He possessed a wonderful 
personality, vv^iich he impressed on all who came 
in contact with him, no matter what their prejudices 
were. Men who knew him only by reputation 
admired him for his great talents, but when they 
came to know him personally their admiration and 
respect w^ere increased many fold. He was a 
friend of the South. Though on many points I 
could not agree with him, yet my admiration for 
him was so great that he was the one Republican 
I could have voted for for President. The news 
of his death shocked me, though we knew the end 
was inevitable. Mr. Blaine never wrestled with 
the social problem in the South — the one influence 
that has kept the South solid. He could not do 
so for party reasons. That he admitted himself. 
I think the obligations of party prevented him 
from doing many things that would have benefited 
the South. He was closely identified with the 
South in many ways. In Virginia, West Virginia, 
Kentucky and Alabama he had large interests. 
We Southerners liked Blaine for his sterling 
Americanism. That was the quality that touched 
our pride. We felt that he was American through 
and through,'' 

At this time, also, the following account was 
given of the famous Burchard Incident'' in 1884, 
which has previously been described in this volume. 
The account was given on the Sunday following 



PINAL TRIBUTES. .5^5 

Mr. Blarneys death, by the Rev. Dr. Robert S. 
MacArthur, of NevvT York, in the course of a 
sermon on ''The Dead of a Week,'' in which 
reference was made to the deaths of Rutherford 
B. Hayes, Abner Doubleday, Phillips Brooks, 
L. Q. C. Lamar, and James G. Blaine. 

" Since its occurrence,'' said Dr. MacArthur, 
''the true story of the Burchard incident may be 
told for the first time. I may be permitted to say 
that all the facts connected with it are known to 
me, and that in my judgment the time has now 
come when they should be fully stated. It was 
supposed by many that Dr. Burchard deliberately 
uttered the fatal alliterative words in order to 
secure Mr. Blaine's defeat. Many politicians were 
so firmly convinced that such was the case that at 
one time they determined to investigate the case 
by every personal and legal process which they 
could employ. Many affirmed further that some 
members of Dr. Burchard's family voted for Mr. 
Blaine's opponent in that election. They affirmed 
further that certain of Dr. Burchard's financial 
obligations were mysteriously paid soon after the 
occurrence of the now historic incident, and they 
therefore reached the conclusion that his famous 
words were spoken as the result of a deliberate 
plan to defeat Mr. Blaine. I used my influence 
at the time to relieve Dr. Burchard from this added 
reproach. It is but justice to him now to say that 
these suspicions were utterly unfounded, and that 



56-6 



JAMES G, BLAINR. 



five minutes before he had begun his address he 
did not know and could not have known that he 
was to be asked to speak. The committee having 
the matter in charge chose the honored and dis- 
tinguished Dr. Thomas Armitage, then pastor of 
the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, of this city, to 
preside, and to make the address to Mr. Blaine. 
Dr. Armitage was absent in Philadelphia preach- 
ing a dedication sermon. It was expected that he 
would arrive in New York in good, time to perform 
this service. We Vs^aited half an hour after the 
appointed time and he did not arrive. Then a 
young lawyer, a member of this church, came to 
me and sug-o-ested that I invite Dr. Burchard to 
take Dr. Armitage's place. I hesitated about 
assuming that responsibility at so critical a time. 
I referred him to a distinguished Methodist clergy- 
man, who was also on the committee. His judg- 
ment, as well as that of my legal friend, were 
earnestly in favor of inviting Dr. Burchard, as a 
man who for forty years had been pastor of a 
prominent Presbyterian church in this city, and 
who had always honorably discharged every 
obligation in his clerical life. 

''Again I hesitated and again the company 
waited, but Dr. Armitage not arriving, and the 
necessity for proceeding being earnestly urged, 
the unfortunate invitation was given and Dr. 
Burchard presided. The m.oment the alliterative 
escaped his lips I saw tliat a fatal blinider had 



FINAL TRIBUTES. 



been committed. I watched Mr. Blaine closely, 
hoping that he would see the purport of the 
remark, and that with his well-known tact he 
would give it a wise and patriotic reply, but it was 
evident that he did not appreciate the meaning of 
the words spoken, as he made no allusion to them 
in his reply. It is due to Dr. Burchard's memory 
that this statement now be made. Whatever his 
views afterward became nothing can be more 
certain than that he spoke what he deemed truth- 
ful words, and spoke them honestly on this occa- 
sion. He told me afterward that the chief error 
of his words, the only error, indeed, was that he 
spoke too much truth.'' 

The funeral of Mr. Blaine was held on Monday, 
January 30th, in the house in which he had died, and 
in the church he had attended, and it was as 
private and simple as possible. Yet the most em- 
inent men in the nation stood around his bier. 
All business in the National Capitol was sus- 
pended during the period in when the funeral ser- 
vices were in progress. The presence of the 
President and Cabinet and Supreme Judges and 
high officials of Congress and of the Diplomatic 
Corps was not more significant than the homage 
of the waiting crowds which, in respectful silence, 
lined the streets through which the funeral pro- 
cession passed. 

The casket in which lay the remains of the 
illustrious dead was placed in the parlor of the 



JAAIES a. BLAINE. 



house, literally embowered in flowers. Grouped 
about it were the v/idow, her daughters, Mrs. 
Danirosch and Miss Harriet Blaine ; James G. 
Blaine, Jr., Mrs. Emmons Blaine, Miss Dodge 
('^Gail Hamilton ; R. G. Blaine, brother of the 
dead statesman, and his wife 'and daughter; 
Hampton Denm^an, of Missouri, cousin of Mn 
Blaine ; Frank, Henry, Horace and Augustus 
Stanwood, Walter Stinson and W. H. Hatch, all 
nephews of the dead man. Others present were 
the President and Vice-President, and the mem- 
bers of the Cabinet, and their families ; and many 
Senators, Representatives, and foreign diplomats, 
while a vast throng stood silent in the street 
without. The brief service was conducted by the 
Rev. Dr. T. L. Hamlin, pastor of the Presbyterian 
Church of the Covenant, of which Mr. Blaine had 
been an attendant. Standing by the coffin, he 
offered a brief prayer for consolation for the 
bereaved. That was all ; and the gathering 
moved on to the Church of the Covenant. 

This church is a modern structure, v/ith a lofty 
picturesque stone tower, capped with red tiling. 
It is at the corner of Connecticut ave. and N St., 
opposite the British Legation, and in the heart of 
the fashionable northwestern section of the city. 
Within it was profusely adorned with palms and 
flowers. A great and distinguished congregation 
was present, Vv^hlle thousands more thronged the 
streets in respectful silence. At exactly nodn the 



PINAL TRIBUTES. 



Cortege entered the church. Dr. Hamlin walked 
at the head, holding in his hand an open book 
containing the ritual of the Presbyterian worship, 
and read as he advanced selections from the Scrip- 
tures. Behind him came the honorary pallbearers, 
two abreast, Senators Hale and Frye, the rep- 
resentatives of the dead man's State, leading the 
way. The family followed and took the front 
seat near the coffin. 

When all were seated, Dr. Hamlin began the 
church services with the reading of selections from 
the Scriptures. The reading finished, prayer was 
offered by Dr. Hamlin. This, which was the only 
approach to a funeral discourse that marked the 
ceremonies of the da v, was as folloAvs : 

Thanks be unto Thee, Almighty God, that we 
come into the presence of death with such words 
of triumph as these. Thanks be unto Thee, O 
Lord Jesus Christ, that immortal life is no more 
a dim surmise, a probable speculation, but an as- 
sured fact. Thanks be unto Thee, O Holy Spirit 
of God, that Thou hast revealed to the hearts and 
minds of men these truthful verities upon which 
we rest when human life passeth like a shadow, 
when our hopes are all frustrated and our plans 
all put to naught in the presence of the great 
destroyer. 

Thanks be unto God, the Father and the Son 
and the Holy Sphnt for Christian triumph in the 
presence of the open grave. We render Thee in 



570 JAMES G. BLAINE. 

this sacred and solemn place and presence, O God, 
our tribute of gratitude for that Thou didst make 
Thy servant, whose ashes we are now committing 
to the resting place of all the living. We thank 
thee for all that mental endowment with which 
Thou didst bless him, for all the fidelity in culture 
and refinement in the pursuit of all that makes 
the human mind clear and true and strong and 
mighty that marked his life. 

We thank Thee for his patriotism, his serene 
and unchanging faith in the institutions of the land 
he loved. We thank Thee for his services to his 
country in days and years of peril, through critical 
times steadily holding to his confidence in the 
great principles that underlie our institutions. We 
thank Thee for his faith in God, his faith in Jesus 
Christ, his acceptance of Him as his personal 
Saviour and Redeemer. We thank Thee for his 
broad charity, his kindness and sweetness of heart 
that impressed all those that love man and serve 
God. We thank Thee for his strong serenity 
under the great and crushing bereavements that 
in these last years have fallen upon him and upon 
his household. We thank Thee for his fortitude 
during all these weeks of waiting, for his patience 
and his gentleness. We thank Thee, L®rd, for all 
that our departed brother, through Thy grace, was 
as man and citizen, as patriot, as a servant of his 
country, as husband and father in the beautiful 
life of the home. 



FINAL TRIBUTES, 



S7I 



And now we entreat Thee, O God, that Thy 
comfort may come upon those that are most 
nearly bereaved, that these members of his own 
household and those near kindred may be strong 
in faith, trusting in God alone, and while there 
flows to them such a stream of sympathy from all 
parts of the land and of the world, we pray Thee 
that, receiving it with gratitude, they may rest not 
in it, but in the priceless sympathy of the Son of 
God. W e entreat Thee that they may be able to 
look, not into the open grave, but into the open 
heavens, not at what they have lost, but at what 
the dear one gone has left behind. And we 
entreat Thee that the fragrant and precious 
memories of this dear husband and father, friend 
and kinsman, maybe their solace in these desolate 
and trying days. 

*'We ask thy blessings, O Lord, our God, upon 
the Executive Department of tho Government 
with which Thy servant was so intimately associ- 
ated. We commend to Thee the President of 
the United States, the Vice-President and all the 
members of the Cabinet with whom our departed 
brother labored. And we entreat that upon them 
all in this sense of loss and this new admonition 
of their own mortality, there may come a comfort- 
inor consciousness and serene trust in God and the 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

'*We pray Thee, our Father, for the Congress of 
the United States, in whose councils for so long 



JAMES G. BLAINK. 



Thy servant participated ancl with such influence 
for good. We entreat Thee that every member 
of the Congress may be impressed anew with 
the need of trust in God, in preparation for this 
event that cometh ahke to all, and that their work 
henceforth may be done under the consciousness 
of their responsibility to God under the power of 
an endless life. 

''We ask Thy blessing upon all our common- 
wealth. We comm.end to Thee especially the 
State in which our brother was born and the State 
that adopted him and that together rejoice to-day 
in his illustrious service ; and we pray Thee that 
the executives and legislators of all our common- 
wealths may be men of God, that they may trust 
and serve Thee. We ask Thy blessing, O Lord, 
upon all the people of the land ; upon the millions 
that with singular fidelity have loved him whose 
voice so many of them have heard, whose counsel 
so many of them have followed, but who nov/ rests 
speechless in death. We entreat Thee that his 
patriotism, his lofty purposes, his sincere and con- 
stant love for the institutions of the land may ani- 
mate all the people and may be a blessed heritage 
for every citizen of the Republic. 

''We commend to Thee the nations of the earth ; 
all those lands that have felt the touch of his hand 
in the great relations of diplomacy, and we pray 
Thee that there may come to tKem all a more pro- 
found trust in God, in people, in the liberties 



FINAL TRIBUTES. 



575 



wherewith God is making people free, and in all 
those blessed gifts that come from Him to the 
nation that loves and serves the Lord of Hosts. 

''And we ask Thy blessing, O Lord, upon this 
church. We thank Thee that Thy servant had 
part in its ver^y beginning, that he did not despise 
the day of small things. We thank Thee that he 
loved and aided it in its early days and its progress, 
that he worshipped here and sat at this communion 
table. We pray Thee that Thou wilt grant to this 
church, as Thou taketh from it one and another, 
the consolation of Thy holy spirit and Thine abid- 
ing orrace. 

"And nov/, dear Lord, as we go hence and take 
our places about the open grave and deposit there 
this sacred and precious dust, wilt Thou go with 
us as this family return to their desolate home? 
Wilt Thou be with them? Wilt Thou make good 
the void that is in their hearts ? May this many 
times bereaved, this sorely afflicted household have 
the abundant comfort and strength and grace of 
Jesus Christ, our Lord, and we beseech Thee, our 
Heavenly Father, that throughout all the land and 
throughout all the world, wherever the eyes and 
hearts of men are turning at this hour toward this 
place, wherever any are sending to God the 
tributes of thanks for the services of this life, 
wherever there is sorrow to-day, we entreat Thee 
that Thy presence may soothe every sorrow and 



that the hope of immortality may be inspired 
afresh in every heart. 

''Forgive our sins, receive us all into the number 
of Thy dear children, help us so to live that we 
shall be ready at any moment to hear Thee say, 
'Son, daughter, thy work on earth is finished, 
come home; ' and so each, at last, may there open 
the doors of the seat of God ; and may we enter 
in to be forever blessed." 

The Lord's Prayer was then recited by the 
pastor and a part of the congregation, and the 
benediction was invoked upon all' present, and at 
12.45 the church services closed; the coffin was 
raised and placed once more in the hearse, all the 
distinguished concourse standing as it was borne 
from the church. 

It was then noted that Mrs. Blaine was not 
among the mourners, as had been supposed. 
xA^mong so many deeply veiled figures her form had 
not heretofore been missed, but it was now whis- 
pered that, overcome by grief, she had remained 
at the house. Before the starting of the funeral 
procession from Lafayette Square Mrs. Blaine had 
requested to be left alone for a few minutes with 
her dead. The parlor had been cleared for this 
purpose, and when Mrs. Blaine emerged she 
made her way, supported on the arms of her son 
and daughter. Miss Harriet, to the room where 
her husband had died, and there gave way to her 
grief in utter prostration. Mrs. Hale and other 



FINAL TRIBUTES, 



577 



sympathizing friends followed her to the death 
chamber; but their friendly ministrations were of 
no avail, and Mrs. Blaine was compelled to re- 
main behind. 

The funeral procession next moved from the 
church to Oak Hill Cemetery, a beautiful spot on 
the summit of Georgetown Heights. Here are 
the graves of many famous dead, including that of 
John Howard Payne, author of ''Home, Sweet 
Home." Here, too, two of Mr. Blaine's children 
had been buried. The President, Vice-President, 
Cabinet, Ministers and many others accompanied 
the family to the grave. There Dr. Hamlin read 
the simple committal service of the Presbyterian 
church, and offered the following brief prayer : 

''We thank Thee, Heavenly Father, that to those 
who trust in Christ the last of earth is the first of 
heaven. We thank Thee that those solemn and 
sad words ; 'Dust to dust, and ashes to ashes,' 
are not spoken of the soul. We invoke Thy com- 
forting presence in this household as they return 
to their sad home, and beseech Thee to make good 
by Thy grace the void in their hearts, in those 
saddest hours that are yet to follow^ May their 
trust in Thee be unshaken, and the precious 
memory of their departed console them in their 
loneliness. Enable them to look away from the 
open tomb in<to the open heaven, and by the 
vision of faith may they see their dear one safe 
with Thee ; and when others shall perform for us 



578 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 



these last offices of love, may they have the 
sweet assurance that they are forever with the 
Lord. 

Forgive our sins and receive us, when this life 
shall close, into the everlasting joy and fehcity of 
life immortal in the name and for the sake of Jesus 
Christ, our Lord." 

Then came the benediction, and the solemn 
rites w^ere ended. 

And thus was ended the earthly history of one 
of the foremost American citizens of his age ; and 
thus was stricken from the roll of the living and 
placed upon the roll of the departed, one of the 
brightest and noblest of names in American his- 
tory — 

One of the few, the immortal names 
That were not born to die ! *' 



1 



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